What's your job about?
Water Corporation is responsible for sustainably supplying water, wastewater and drainage services to the people of Western Australia. We are committed to implementing circular economy principles into our everyday work, which consists of designing out waste externalities, keeping materials in use and regenerating natural systems. This is where my role comes in! I am a part of the Environmental Policy and Strategy team. My main responsibilities include the delivery of environmental strategic initiatives, implementation of circular economy principles and to assist in the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Action Plan. My daily tasks consist of desktop research into what the latest data, ideas and actions are in the waste and circular economy space, creating internal communications to spread environmental messaging around the corporation, analysing waste data and of course meetings.
An interesting project that I am currently running is a waste audit of the North West Region. A waste audit consists of meeting with various teams from depos and sites in the North West and asking them a series of questions to understand what types of waste they create (e.g. crushed cement, office waste etc.), where that waste goes (landfill, recycled etc.), how it is collected and much more. This has been a super challenging project, but the reward is high as our findings will help shape how we manage our waste in the regions.
What's your background?
I am a Perth girl and grew up in a small suburb called Rivervale. The most important stages of my life would be achieving my dream of graduating from University with a Bachelor of Commerce and landing my first office job with Water Corporation. I am also now in my dream role where I get to make a positive environmental change, which is an incredible feeling. Something you may be interested to know is that I actually wanted to be a veterinarian straight out of high school! But deep down I was always passionate about economics and finding out how it interacts with the environment and society. So, I decided to change my career direction completely and headed towards a Bachelor of Commerce with a second major in science. Although it was a super hard decision at the time, I don’t regret a thing and I am glad I pursued my true passion. Outside of my career, I have formed a strong connection with other Water Corporation Grads and have created some lifelong friendships. Its great to have a group to regularly go for lunch with and we have a social netball team which is great fun.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Absolutely! I have a background primarily in Economics, but I am in an Environment team within a water utility, which was something I wasn’t sure was possible when studying at university. Throughout my three rotations at Water Corporation, I have also worked for one year in IT procurement and another year in Customer Strategy and Engagement. With the support of some amazing teams, I was able to quickly learn what I needed to know to thrive in these positions and I certainly believe it could be possible for others to do too.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
I love that I can make a positive environmental impact by working at Water Corporation. One of our corporate objectives is ‘lowest environmental impact’, which is something I strongly align to and I am proud to work for an organisation that is striving to be more sustainable and address environmental problems. I find it really cool that each day I come into work, I am able to innovate and find ways that we can improve our management of waste, including reducing what goes to landfill and finding solutions to improve our recycling capabilities.
What are the limitations of your job?
The biggest limitation of my job is the amount of technical knowledge that must be learnt in a relatively short amount of time to do the job well. For instance, in the waste space, there are a large number of different types of wastes that are generated, and you have to learn what they are, how they are produced and how they could be recycled. This knowledge is also quite unique to Water Corporation as the wastes we produce as a water utility are complex and some processes are highly technical to understand. This is a problem I have solved by reading relevant documents to familiarise myself and having one-on-one knowledge share meetings with my colleague that is an expert in this field.
3 pieces of advice for your university-self?