Written by Emmylou Cooke (SuRF ANZ), Senversa
The Australasian Sustainable Remediation Forum (SuRF ANZ) ALGA Specialist Interest Group delivered a holistic and hands on workshop using the SURE tool, developed by Ramboll.
SuRF ANZ stalwart, David Tully introduced the workshop. While a recognised contaminated land professional in his own right, David spoke to his personal drivers for incorporating sustainability into everyday life, not the least of which was his daily interaction with a very cute brushtail possum called Florence who inhabits his garden. He highlighted beautifully that our work has a tangible end goal, which is to sustain and improve our environment for generations (of humans, possums, and all wildlife!) to come.
David was followed by SuRF US president, Paige Molzahn, who highlighted several different tools available that are free to access and use in our practice, and also discussed some of the likely developments in this space. Paige put an EOI out for anyone interested in assisting the development of new tools, and asked that they contact her.
The workshop itself was interactive and animated, with more than 50 participants offering robust discussion and opinions on how best to rank the sustainability indicators for our case study and the remedial options presented. Stephen Maxwell expertly guided us through the process, showing how easy it is to capture varied opinions and modify the metrics to align with stakeholder values and drivers. We were able to see in real time how our rankings resulted in a detailed and quantitative sustainability assessment, ready for incorporation into a remedial options assessment or use as the deciding factor in option selection.
Overall, SuRF ANZ received a lot of positive feedback for the workshop, including some suggestions on ways that the tool could be improved, such as to include Traditional Owner Values as an indicator.
The SuRF ANZ SIG is now looking to run a modified version of the workshop at the WasteMINZ conference (in partnership with ALGA) in Te Whanganui-a-Tara | Wellington next year and looks forward to this being just as interactive and valuable to participants and facilitators alike!