Engineering and environmental consul- tant SSI are focusing on three key elements, namely sustainability, business integrity and corporate responsibility, says SSI CEO Naren Bhojaram.

He says that the consulting engineering industry has had to change the way that it operates, which resulted in SSI implementing mandatory systems for its engineers to ensure sustainability in designs.

“From a consulting engineering perspective, independence is important. We are sometimes forced to tell clients what they might not want to hear,” says Bhojaram.

SSI is also focusing on operation and maintenance, especially in increasing energy efficiency in infrastructure. He says that energy efficiency and long-term operational maintenance costs have become increasingly important.

Bhojaram says that the company also focuses on business integrity, which should be a core value of the consulting industry. Industry asso- ciation Consulting Engineers South Africa (Cesa) is developing an initiative to increase business integrity awareness by its members. Bhojaram is involved with Cesa in developing the related policy documentation.

SSI has a business integrity management system to tackle corruption and the company, specifically, will not work in certain countries owing to a lack of business integrity.

The consultancy has also developed a corpo- rate responsibility management system that is divided into three different and fundamental legs: corporate social responsibility, corporate internal responsibility and corporate project responsibility.

Under corporate social responsibility, SSI runs a Saturday school for previously disadvantaged children in five different centres, located in Pretoria, Alexandra, Bloemfontein, Durban and Pietermaritzburg. Each centre coaches about 25 Grade 12 learners in mathe- matics, science and technical drawing to encour- age them to take up technical careers.

The company also supports charities, such as the SOS Children’s Village and bursary schemes.

The company’s corporate internal responsibility focuses on efforts to reduce energy and paper use.

Corporate project responsibility focuses on the use of energy efficient techniques for excavation, for example, as well as using materials that are manufactured from renew- able resources using the least energy in the manufacturing process. The company also reviews the pollution levels in the material’s manufacturing process.

“There is a fundamental shift in the philo- sophy of design. SSI undertakes value analyses that take into account sustainability issues, such as energy costs and the materials used. The materials must also be reusable in the next 50 years,” says Bhojaram.

He notes that innovation is a cornerstone of the company ethos and ideas are rewarded in the company internally. SSI has a programme and budget for innovation, as well as internal compe- titions which encourage staff to participate and develop different innovation projects.

One of the innovations currently being sold is a toolkit that explains the new coastal management legislation. The Department of Water and Environmental Affairs has requested to use the toolkit to explain legislation to municipalities that are responsible for sections of the coast.

Meanwhile, Bhojaram identifies education as one of the industry’s greatest challenges. He says there should be a stronger drive in South Africa to create an education system that produces thinkers for the future.

“I do not just mean passing Grade 12 or attaining a degree, but I am talking about producing thinkers that will make a difference towards sustainability in the future. Universities are producing engineers that can reproduce what has been done before, but innovative thinkers are needed,” says Bhojaram.

The company along with some other consultants also supplements the salaries of university lecturers, who are insufficiently remunerated by learning institutions.

Meanwhile, SSI is currently involved in a sewage treatment process project, using the patented technology, Nereda, which was developed in the Netherlands. The techno- logy is being rolled out in Portugal and South Africa and reduces the size of the site required and increases energy efficiency. The techno- logy reduces capital costs by about 30%, while operation and energy costs are reduced by as much as 50%.

The company is in a joint venture project with black economic-empowerment partner Mafuri Associates to construct and manage the building of 16 schools for the Gauteng Department of Education on a turnkey basis.

The project only makes use of emerging contractors. Skills and financial empowerment have been achieved with more than 60% of the contractual value flowing to emerging contractors and suppliers. Bhojaram says that these contractors have successfully delivered 13 of the 16 schools to high standards required in construction.

SSI recently received regional South African Institution of Civil Engineering awards for community projects in KwaZulu-Natal, where it supervised construction of bridges over rivers that separate communities and schools. It has completed bridges across the Black and White Umfolozi rivers.

Additionally, outside Durban, it is involved in a bridge project over the Mgeni river, where an incrementally launched dual carriage-way bridge is being built. This project is unusual, says Bhojaram, in that it has the steepest gradient for an incrementally launched bridge on the continent.

The consultancy is involved in environmental and spatial planning, which hinges on sustainability and the environment in the eThekwini northern corridor. The company is also involved in three work sections of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, inclu- ding another incrementally launched bridge at the Gillooly’s interchange, in Gauteng.

SSI carries out many airport projects in Africa, including projects in Mozambique, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa.

Meanwhile, Bhojaram says that, given the effects of the global financial crisis, SSI has been fortunate as the majority of its clients are from the government sector, which is the driving force behind most of the company’s projects. He believes that 2010 will still present tough economic conditions to operate in while the market recovers.

The South African consulting industry has in the past been well protected, but international companies, especially Chinese and Indian contractors, are competing for African business and international developers provide attractive turnkey project packages. The rest of the world is also producing more engineering and scientific graduates than South Africa, which means that local companies will have to compete for these resources.

Bhojaram concludes that SSI aims to maintain its market share against the threat of local and foreign competition by producing innovative solutions that provide long-term cost and energy efficiency benefits.

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