Better communicating the value of engineering in economic and societal terms can enable engineers to have their voices heard in strategic, policy and operational decisions.
A panel of experts at Engineers Australia’s Climate Smart Engineering (CSE23) conference explored how policy and decision-makers have not always understood the value of engineering — and that engineers have typically not effectively communicated that value.
Engineers Australia’s Chief Engineer Jane MacMaster FIEAust CPEng EngExec introduced the topic at hand.
“One of the things we lament in this profession is the low profile of engineering relative to other professions … and relative to engineering in other countries, such as Pakistan, India, Canada [and] Germany,” she said.
And that translates into engineering perspectives not adequately being considered in policy and decision-making at all levels of government and in large organisations.
Emeritus Professor James Trevelyan FIEAust CPEng, researcher and start-up entrepreneur, laid out clearly in a pre-recorded video the problem facing the profession.
“Engineers have specialised technical knowledge that enable[s] them to design, build, operate and maintain artificial objects, systems and processes that improve human productivity and wellbeing,” he said. “But they often lack the skills, concepts and language to communicate how they will affect the bottom line of their organisations or clients.
“Financial decision-makers will follow our lead, provided we can present solutions using language and ideas that they can understand.”
“Unleashed” value
The monetary value is clear, according to Amy Lezala Zahr FIEAust EngExec, Chief Engineer – Rail at the Department of Transport and Planning
She shared an enlightening old saying from her native England that points to the money-saving value of the profession: ‘What someone can do for a pound, an engineer can do for ten bob’.
Engineers Australia National President Dr Nick Fleming FIEAust CPEng EngExec weighed in on the influence that engineering has on the world and its people.
“Often [I’ll] ask … how many people in a group like this would assume that we’re able to put a person on Mars within about a decade,” he explained. “On average, about 90 per cent of hands go up.
“And I think we probably have a sense of how incredibly difficult and challenging that is, but for me that actually illustrates the extent to which our technological prowess as a human species is actually taken for granted.”
To ensure sustainability is prioritised and prosperity maintained, “we need to be careful about expecting everyone to understand us … we actually need to help everyone understand the value that we can create by actually doing it”.
Engineers are being used more for process than progress, according to Lezala Zahr, often making engagement with engineers a tick-and-flick exercise rather than true consultation.
But engineers can get innovation and consultation “happening again” in small and large ways.
An example provided by ACT Chief Engineer Adrian Piani FIEAust CPEng EngExec of those large ways was how the ACT government mandated carbon targets about 10 years ago, “before everyone else”.
“We turned our energy system 100 per cent renewable,” he said, adding that the ACT government decided it needed good engineering and economic advice — and sought it prior to making an informed decision.
“That’s an example of good engineering and economics coming together [to] help government make a decision.”
Many engineering clients aren’t clear themselves about the value, Fleming said.
“We’re often given projects that are very time-bound,” he said. “But those … solutions we create often exist over many years, often decades. So the question is, what will enduring value look like?
“Even if you have a brilliant idea and it’s financially attractive, it’s not always implementable … How do we make the solutions that we propose valuable [and] adoptable?
“That’s the point where we can start to unleash value.”
Engineers Australia acknowledges the support of the Victorian State Government and Melbourne Convention Bureau in helping make this event happen.
The Climate Smart Engineering conference will return in 2024.