Episode #25

• Born in Kalgoorlie and grew up in a little nickel-mine town.  She likes volunteering which she thinks comes from growing up in a really welcoming town. 
• Zaneta is a Chemical Engineer, graduated from Curtin University with a Bachelor of Applied Science (Chemistry) and a Bachelor of Chemical Engineer with Honours. 
• She has worked as a process engineer in Mining and Industry, has conducted capital audits, provided technical advice on emissions reportingand has even undertaken a position as a Communications Consultant with The World Bank to develop a National Sanitation Communication strategy in Bangladesh 
• Zaneta currently leads the Western Australia team for Energetics where she provides carbon management and emissions reporting advice to resource clients. 
• She is a presenter with the Climate Reality Project which aims to move the Climate Change conversation forward and to turn awareness into action all across the Earth. 
• Got into engineering as father was a fitter and turner.  She was good at maths & science and received a scholarship from Curtin University. 
• Her first project was at Iluka and working with mineral sands to produce a report quantifying the waste streams. 
• Best project was the opportunity to commission a plant… “I feel like every engineer should have the opportunity to go through a construction and commissioning process at least once” 

• Zaneta wants to encourage more engineers to step up and be in charge of our society. 
• “We need more engineers around the table, having conversations to help make good decisions.” 
• Engineers should join their representative body, various government bodies.  “So that they can advocate for sensible solutions” 
• “Generally, engineers know the solutions to a lot of problems” 
• Looking at the number of projects from a local design & construction perspective…. discovered that of the $170 Billion of work, none of it was actually designed in Australia. “quite devastating for a lot of the local engineers” 
• Most of the work being won by local engineering firms, are actually being sent offshore to a sister-company.  Living in a globalised economy, these are the realities.  But when it’s a resource project, taking a resource from Australia, or building a product for Australia, then ideally it should benefit Australia or be built there so the conditions are front-of-mind. 
• The solution would be to join an industry union and/or become politically active, join a political party.  Find a voice and don’t be afraid to use it.  

• It’s great to have practical skills.  Dom pointed out “getting in there and getting your hands dirty makes all the difference” 
• The engineering piece is the easy piece, the people are hard to manage 
• Projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – it does cost money to implement, but the internal rate of return is fantastic.  People are scared to do something new. 
• 2 types of engineering: engineering based on what we’ve tried and tested and done before vrs what’s theoretically possible and give it a try.  There’s tension between these 2 school of thoughts. “From an engineering perspective, every idea was brand new at some time” 
• How important it is to find solutions and work together on a multi-disciplinary team. “Engineering is best when it’s part of a multi-disciplinary team”. And need to ensure the public will accept the solution that is engineered “There’s no point of engineering a solution that won’t actually be accepted by the public” 
• “Climate change has been described as the greatest moral dilemma of our time” 
• The future is coming, but getting the timing right is difficult.  Try to take as many opportunities as you can.  “Be it until you are it” 

An engineering item for discussion. The CY O’Connor pipeline.  It got turned on, the water didn’t turn out, the engineer thought he had failed so committed suicide, only for the water to arrive later than had been initially planned.  Read More 

An engineer to admire. C.Y. O’Connor was a great engineer who did a lot of work in WA.   

Yassmin Abdel-Magied is also a great young engineer to watch out for. 

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Our drinking game.  You can’t have a beer with an engineer without having a drinking game!!  Anytime Dom says “ummm” or Mel says “so”… drink up!