Enviropacific’s International Women’s Day Profile Spotlights

An interview with Merinda Tedesco, Project Manager

Merinda is a project manager for Enviropacific’s VIC/SA/TAS Remediation team. With a lifelong passion for protecting the environment, Merinda started her journey some 12 years ago when she decided to study a Bachelor of Environmental Science and Management at The University of Newcastle. While studying, she started her connection to Enviropacific, which led to her landing a graduate role after she had completed her studies. Over the last 9 -10 years, Merinda has worked across various Enviropacific projects in NSW and VIC in which she has loved because of the variety of work and challenges presented at each project and also because of the incredible people that she has had the privilege to undertake this work with.

What inspired you to work in the environmental service industry?

I’ve always been passionate about looking after the environment. The outdoors was a huge part of my upbringing. Sticking to my passion, I went on to study a Bachelor of Environmental Science and Management and continued to follow my interests into the area of environmental remediation. I actively wanted to be a part of cleaning up environmental damage, which was where I found Enviropacific.

As a project manager at Enviropacific, what are you most proud of achieving?

Working with contaminated land, particularly older industrial sites, can present challenges in the way of uncovering unexpected contamination or infrastructure. This is the nature of remediation. Overcoming these obstacles and creating solutions for projects is always a good feeling. The extensive skill set across our team is the reason we’re able to tackle all changes and unexpected conditions on and off site.

You studied environmental science at university and have held various roles at Enviropacific including site engineer, project engineer and today’s position as project manager. What have been the advantages for you as a project manager having this strong background?

Our industry brings both science and engineering to the forefront. Both skillsets bring strengths and niches to remediation. Over the years, my science background has enabled me to focus in on soil and water contamination and treatment, including undertaking small and large scale treatment trials.

Finally, as an accomplished Project Manager working in our sector – what are the top pieces of advice you’d offer to any emerging professional looking to be a project manager in the land and groundwater sector too?

Firstly, anticipate that you'll likely face changes in the projects you work on. So, it's essential to determine what could change and plan how to prepare for this. When this happens, I recommend being transparent about these situations with your team and clients, especially for those unfamiliar with the world of remediation.

Secondly, I encourage you to empower the people you work with. Be forthcoming with information and allow your team members to communicate openly with each other to ensure a friendly working environment.

An Interview with Bahar Zoughi, Site Engineer

Bahar Zoughi, Enviropacific’s Site Engineer, from the Remediation team in NSW/ACT, is passionate about the environment. 

What inspired you to pursue a career in engineering and be part of the environmental services industry? 

I have always been passionate about environmental matters ever since I was 18. Although I pursued civil engineering, my final year was dedicated to environmental studies. 

Can you share a particularly rewarding project you've worked on and the impact it had on you? 

For a year and a half, I worked as a Quality Engineer to perform structural remediation for a project at a stadium. Originally from Iran, where women must actively advocate for basic rights, such as entering stadiums and watching games alongside their male counterparts, I was proud of myself for relocating to Australia independently and pursuing a challenging career path. Despite structural engineering not aligning with my long-term career goals, I learned a lot about fundamental construction and engineering principles. 

How do you promote diversity and inclusion within your workplace? 

I think it all starts with women and their determination to achieve their goals. If you genuinely believe in yourself and have confidence in what you do, you indirectly promote diversity and inclusion in your workplace. What we need to understand is how our gender should not be the reason we get discriminated against.  

An Interview with Natasha Dun, Project Engineer 

Natasha Dun, Enviropacific’s Project Engineer from the Water team in QLD/NT, was always interested in and had a passion for engineering and wanted to channel her skills and energy towards cultivating a sustainable future.  

What inspired you to pursue a career in engineering and be part of the environmental services industry? 

I’ve always loved the feeling of solving a challenging problem using rational and logical thinking. Therefore, I always had an interest and passion for engineering. On the environmental front, I’ve always wanted to channel my skills and energy towards cultivating a sustainable future, and giving back to our beautiful planet. 

Can you share a particularly rewarding project you’ve worked on and the impact it had on you? 

I was recently involved in undertaking bench scale trials for one of the projects. We were provided with known contamination in groundwater and were tasked with coming up with a treatment plan to reduce contamination to target levels. By being involved in these trials, I was able to quickly learn and understand the impacts of each treatment process on the overall result.

How do you promote diversity and inclusion within your workplace? 

I like to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace through communication, teamwork and team bonding. The best way to understand a colleague is to work with them, and I generally find the more different a colleague is to me, the more variation in our ideas, which generally leads to improved decision making. 

In what ways do you think women bring unique perspectives to the various projects? 

Studies have shown that women often bring a different perspective to problem-solving and decision-making, which can help to avoid group overthink and bring fresh ideas to the table. Therefore, by including women in various projects, we diversify the team, which has been demonstrated to lead to better decision making due to considering a wider range of options. Women generally are more likely to challenge assumptions and can be more open minded, which also can assist in providing unique perspectives to the projects they are involved in. 

An Interview With Anita Tito & Annaliese Spanbroek, SOLVE Team Operators 

We now turn our focus to the outstanding operators in the SOLVE team at Enviropacific: Anita Tito and Annaliese Spanbroek. 

Reflecting on the most rewarding project, Annaliese shares a personal milestone: "Becoming skilled and confident on the forklift." It's not only about mastering a skill, but also about breaking stereotypes and proving that women can thrive in any role. When it comes to fostering diversity and inclusion within the workplace, their approach is straightforward, "Treat everyone the same."  

Finally, reflecting on the unique perspectives women bring to projects, they agree that it’s the ability to communicate, connect and collaborate. 

Article Published on 28/03/2024

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