Innovation and skills growth are the aims of a recent initiative in SRK Consulting’s Johannesburg office, where young engineers and scientists were briefed to research and develop anything that would improve their work quality and efficiencies.

Over the past year, the water department at SRK gave the team a few hours a month to focus on innovation in a field that interested them, according to the firm’s associate partner and principal scientist, James Lake, and some useful ideas to boost efficiency came to light.

“The group enthusiastically took up the challenge and after just a year have generated a number of time-saving and quality enhancement tools, among others  a geochemical database, a ‘quick guide’ to water quality and a simple slope converter for drains and embankment hydrology,” said Lake.

Environmental engineer Xanthe Mayer, who has been driving the initiative, said the innovation time at any level was vital to building South Africa’s knowledge economy and was central to SRK’s commitment to technical excellence; it had also motivated those involved through new discoveries.

One of the participants, scientist Sarah Mahlangu, said the initiative was a great opportunity to grow as a graduate in the firm. “What I like is that everyone has a choice about how to spend the innovation time and can excel in it,” she said. “I’ve also learnt that it is always good to keep things quick and simple.”

Civil engineer Whelan Naidoo appreciated the opportunity to enhance his skills: “The initiative has provided a forum for innovation, with a way to improve my own productivity and hopefully that of others – it’s exciting.”

Giulia Lindsay-Smith, an environmental scientist in the team, said she developed a “better understanding of water use licenses and related processes, as well as deeper insight into the type of work my colleagues are doing.”

SRK Consulting SA is part of a global network of engineering consultants focusing on sustainable development solutions in mining and other sectors; it employs and develops local talent all over Africa to provide multi-disciplinary services to complex projects.