| 5 T T Richard Loader People key to progressive company Watersmart is at the forefront of water conservation and resilience innovation. Auckland Business Awards: Watersmart REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT For 25 years the Auckland Business Awards have celebrated innovation and creativity in the business sector, and last year Watersmart were named Finalist in the Employer of the Year category. The previous year it was Emerging Business of the Year Finalist. Founded by Andrew Olsen seven years ago, Watersmart is at the forefront of water conservation and resilience innovation, operating as a b2b business, primarily working with developers, group home building companies, architects and engineers throughout New Zealand. Watersmart’s General Manager Philip Kingston says the award nomination and being named Finalist was an acknowledgement of everybody’s effort within the team. “We have a great company and a great team who all believe passionately in what we do and I think that is reflected in the business’s growth and success over the last seven years. The only way we can be successful is with great people working together to achieve the same ultimate objective. Being named Finalist, gives us the opportunity to celebrate our success across the team.” Last year a cross section of Watersmart’s team members attended the prestigious awards gala evening and Philip says it was interesting to note the team’s level of disappointment that it was not able to bring home the Employer of the Year award. “As the GM, I thought that was a fantastic reflection of the passion the team have for the work we do and their belief that Watersmart is truly a great employer. “Our mission is to optimise the water footprint on this earth; that is our reason for being. We like to say that we realise the true value of water, and we have a lot of passionate people working in the diverse areas of our business who are in a space that actually makes a real difference.” Evolving from Stormwater Systems and rebranding as Watersmart to better reflect a broader end-to-end focus in stormwater management; flood control; water recycling; rainwater harvesting; water treatment and water management systems, the team has grown from one to now in the mid-forties. “We’ve actually tripled over the last three years. We now have different facets to the business including traditional sales, marketing and consultant type roles with people who have an in-depth technical knowledge around the solutions we offer. There are operational delivery roles including plumbing, and there are procurement, supply chain and warehousing functions. There’s a team who work with our clients to help design the solutions we offer and within that team we do a lot of sustainability modelling and assessments. We have an aftercare team servicing our systems, and we have a plumbing maintenance team. We also provide water sustainability audits to understand what the use of water is and its wastage, and have a technical solution called FlowGen enabling us to measure water usage and provide automated alerts where there are issues.” Career development is something that Watersmart is looking to put more structure around, but Philip says there are several examples where people have already progressed in the business. “PJ started out assembling pumps and he’s now the installation Team Leader for our Aquacomb® product. He’s super talented and is also doing his plumbing apprenticeship with us. Another one of our people, Jack, started working in the warehouse on a casual basis and he’s now in our administration team.” Proud to be associated with Watersmart Proline Plastics specialises in the development and manufacture of innovative polymer products via injection and rotational moulding. www.proline.co.nz +64 9 276 1670 sales@proline.co.nz We specialize and pride ourselves in design solutions that challenge existing thinking. Please contact us to discuss your project requirements – we are always happy to help.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=