Aisling O'Sullivan
Senior Lecturer, Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering
Aisling and son, Finnian, commuting to UC
via bike.
Aisling has an holistic approach to sustainability, aiming to integrate all areas of her life and work.
She says her Irish upbringing probably played a part in that. “Growing up in Ireland in the 1980’s, where material goods were limited and the economy was slow, we made wise use of limited resources. Most families grew their own food and reused things while consumerism was low. This provided a good platform for developing my appreciation for natural resources and probably led me into my present career as an ecological engineer.”
She says using resources wisely is logical. Her love of hiking and cycling encourages her sustainability practice. “Because I appreciate the outdoors I guess I just didn’t want to see these resources further degraded.”
Aisling and her husband have a car, but she says it is used rarely ─ mostly when its needed to transport their young child. They live in a small house, grow most of their own food, make their own compost and keep hens. She usually cycles to university. “I practise what I preach, or at least I try to.”
Her expertise is in ecological treatment technologies, especially wastewater treatment. Practical application of that expertise at UC began when she arrived in 2004. “I learnt from Biology colleagues that the health of our campus waterways was being severely compromised by storm water run off, so I was quite concerned about that”
Since then she has been monitoring storm water going into the Okeover and Avon waterways. This has mostly been done through supervising student research projects.
A student project in 2007, in cooperation with Opus Consultants and supported by Environment Canterbury, helped the University renew resource consent for stormwater discharge into the Clyde car park on campus. The research has led to Aisling working with colleague Dr Tom Cochrane on improved treatment designs to mitigate further contaminant discharge into the Avon river.
Aisling teaches papers on ecohydrology, stormwater, ecological engineering and waste reuse engineering techniques. “Everything I teach is primarily focussed on practical application,” she says.
She admits when it comes to sustainability “engineers have a poor track record historically but are now more aware of the need to consider ecosystem values. Given that engineers work directly at the interface of ecosystems, they should be leading sustainability initiatives so we try and incorporate this ethos into our teaching,”
She suggests UC could follow the model of some North American universities and have a few compulsory courses for the first year of all degrees. One of these should be on sustainability principles. “The traditional New Zealand model of university funding at a departmental or college level does not foster integrated learning across campus while appreciation for true sustainability is inherently interdisciplinary”. A change in the EFTS model may help advance sustainability awareness and fundamental understanding amongst all UC graduates”.
Profile by Robin Raymond