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Case Study

Name: Adam Donaldson
Position: Environment Advisor
Qualifications: Bachelor of Science – Materials and Process Engineering.
Age: 26

As Regional Environmental Advisor, what do you do on a day to day basis?
What I do is identify, manage and mitigate any risk with an environmental aspect to it. This involves site inspections for operational compliance, liaising with site operational and lead management on current and potential future environmental issues.

What environmental risks do you typically have to respond to?
Environmental risks include noise, dust, air emissions, soil contaminations, historical contamination from historical processes, and water contamination to name a few. We develop environmental performance data to track and analyse performance surrounding these issues.
 
What part of your role do you find most enjoyable?
I’ve come from a coastal town on the north island of NZ and everything evolved around the environment. I love being at the beach or clean rivers, lakes and forests, and to be in a role where I protect and manage the risk involved with such environments is ideal.
 
Being brought up on the coast, I’ve always enjoyed working outdoors so to be working in it now professionally is something I thrive on.
 
Would you recommend a passion for the environment to those who are thinking about a career in forestry?
To be in my role, you have to care about the environment and be passionate about protecting and minimising risks associated with it.  Having the ability to work with people, create and build relationships is also important.
 
If you’re thinking about entering this sort of job, take the opportunity with both hands!
 
And where do you see yourself in five years?
 In five years, with the experience that I’ve gained in the wood products and timber industry, I can see myself going anywhere. Whether it’s going to be in a specialised field, technical field, management field, operations field, the opportunities are endless.
 
 
We spoke to Adam about his career and what he does day to day. We hope you find this useful and interesting – but please remember, that all jobs are not exactly the same and other roles with the same title may be different in many respects. Confirm all the details of a particular job with the organisation offering it.