Top 50 Women in Engineering: Sustainability awards 2020
Lucie Barouillet is a Product Manager for the Advanced Digital Engineering (ADE) Software team at Arup. She was recently highly commended in the Top 50 Women in Engineering (WE50) for her contribution to the industry. The WE50 Award is an annual award from The Women’s Engineering Society, a charity and a professional network of women in engineering. This year the award focused on celebrating women who have made notable contributions in tackling sustainability challenges.
I sat down with Lucie to talk about how she incorporates sustainability into her work.
Tell me about yourself
I’m a product manager in the ADE Software team. I support the discovery, definition, validation, testing, and development of both internal and client-led web-based solutions for the built environment. My background is in Industrial Design. I became interested in product management because of the three critical dimensions of a product that this role brings together: its desirability, feasibility, and viability. Those really resonated with my experience as a designer and venture manager of what it takes to develop successful ideas.
What did you learn from the application process for the award?
A colleague of mine approached me suggesting we put together an application for the Woman in Engineering Award as I have worked on a number of projects related to this year’s topic of sustainability. Initially, I thought I wasn’t eligible, as I don’t have an engineering degree or background. I am really grateful he suggested it as I wouldn’t have done it otherwise. But after discussing it, we thought, why not, let’s give it a go. I was really surprised to be highly commended.
My takeaway from this is: if you think a colleague of yours might be eligible for an award or nomination, do suggest to help out, as they might not even be considering it, and it makes it so much easier.
As you mentioned, the theme of the award this year is Sustainability, what place does it play in your work?
I was first introduced to sustainability as part of my Industrial Design training. On my first day at Arup, when I joined the Product Design team, I met a Lead Consultant in Environmental Impact and Sustainability, who was sitting a few desks away. I remember the first question he asked me was do you consider sustainability in your designs? I was caught. Although I did understand some of the theories and values behind designing sustainable products, I realised I had very little clue about how to implement those in practice. Not long after, I had the chance to work on a product life cycle Assessment with the Environmental Impact team. A life cycle assessment is about understanding the full life cycle impact of a product from the raw materials it is made of, to its disposal and end of life. For the first time, I was able to correlate design decisions on uses, technologies, materials, and manufacturing to tangible and measured environmental impacts. It was such an eye-opening experience, to realise that as a designer I make all those decisions, full of biases and assumptions of what is better, but in reality, I’ve got no idea about the impact associated with them. Following this experience, I got to work on a variety of projects raising awareness and supporting clients in developing their own approach and strategies to implement sustainability and circular economy in their work, making the connection between principles and practice.
Do you think your approach to sustainability differs as a designer and as a product manager?
Definitely, as the role and focus are different. As a designer, I have a responsibility to design more sustainable products. As a product manager, I have a responsibility to ensure that the right product gets developed. This means asking why? first. Once the need is understood then comes the development of the response. At this stage, sustainability cannot solely be a goal of the design, it also needs to be integral to the commercial and technical approach of the product. I am particularly interested in the new business and economic models that emerge to sustain those propositions.
It is great to see the increased awareness and interest in the topic of sustainability from our clients, as it’s becoming a core requirement. There are a lot of opportunities in terms of tools and solutions to support making that change. One of the projects I’ve been working on recently is a water safety planning tool that helps our public health engineering teams to evaluate, design and deliver optimum system solutions that take into account water safety and sustainability, to ensure best engineering practice are met.
Do you ever face challenges making sustainability part of your work?
Yes for sure! It comes back to finding answers to the why, making a tangible connection between the solution you’re trying to build and the drivers for its adoption and use. Do we take a sustainable approach on a project because we have to (if it is a regulatory requirement), because it is part of our values (we are advocates) or because it makes commercial sense, and it is part of our offering and processes? Understanding those drivers is key to ensure we can meaningfully embed Sustainability in what we do, going from it’s the right thing to do to this is what we do.
Find out more
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