Good technical solutions lie at the heart of mining and industrial projects that are advancing modern African economies.
This is according to Andrew van Zyl, Managing Director of SRK Consulting (South Africa), who emphasises the alignment with global standards as key to helping clients reach and maintain the highest level of performance and best practice in their operations.
The importance of building resilient economies for social transformation, and the nurturing of consulting engineering expertise across various disciplines will be vital to paving a path to inclusive growth.
Evolving Regulations
“Technical excellence and high standards rely on experienced and multidisciplinary teams of professionals who can deliver integrity, independence and rigour in their work”. “When delivering good technical solutions, it is also crucial to consider the regulatory and community context, as these increasingly impact the final result,” he says.
He notes, for instance, that a common theme in the industry is the rapidly evolving regulations relating to water, environment, sustainability and governance factors – including the rapid evolution of voluntary and compulsory reporting and requirements and the need for compliance and alignment.
Companies like SRK are frequently involved in helping clients to update themselves on these requirements, and to apply them to planned projects to ensure alignment and compliance.
Avoiding Fatal Flaws
“This invariably means the early involvement of environmental, social and governance (ESG) specialists who can work in close collaboration with various technical disciplines,” he explains.
“This lays the foundations for smooth and predictable permitting, so that projects can stay on schedule and avoid fatal flaws”.
He points out that most of Africa’s leading companies have ambitious sustainability targets, further reinforcing the need for multidisciplinary teams to include ESG professionals to ensure that technical solutions integrate with a range of sustainability concerns.
Climate Change
“Clients must also be able to monitor and measure their operations and interventions,” he says.
“With the application of digital and other technologies, consulting engineers are playing an important role in helping clients to gather relevant data and to use it to drive their sustainability agendas”.
Climate change considerations are being factored into projects right from the design stage, so that future environmental conditions can be modelled and designs adjusted appropriately.
