What do you do at work?
I specialise in the design, construction, commissioning and operations of green buildings across Africa. I create designs that lead to cost savings for property owners and tenants using engineering modelling and energy efficiency audits.
I also work with property developers, project managers and architects to meet their green building requirements for Green Star, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) green building certifications.
How did you end up doing this work?
Looking at the map released by Nasa of the world at night, my heart broke over how dark the continent of Africa is at night. That map of electrification indicates the extent of economic development and that for our continent education stops when the sun sets.
I imagined a little girl in an informal settlement or in a village going to sleep in the dark, unable to learn and to escape poverty through education, and made the decision to study engineering to help our continent achieve sustainable development goals in my lifetime.
I started Greendesign with a conviction that the way we were engineering was not sustainable, along with three months' salary and a LinkedIn account.
Four years later, Greendesign is an award-winning engineering consulting firm with projects over 120,000m2 and a total project value of R1.2bn.
What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your job, and how do you address them?
I think the biggest challenge is the desire for perfection. Now I believe in the pursuit of perfection that is expressed as excellence, but when I started my business I wanted everything to work perfectly at the perfect time with the perfect client and a perfect team.
There are instances when speed is more important than elegance and where one has to fail fast and fail forward. I know this now.
Running a business is difficult but it is so fulfilling when you don't put yourself under a pressure of perfection.
I now pursue doing my best instead of pursuing perfection.
What work mistakes have taught you the most important lessons?
Sometimes we can get so caught up in the likes and comments from our family and friends that we don't reach out to our clients and partners and have meaningful conversations with them.
One of my mentors once told me to focus on sales - sales happen every time you issue an invoice to a client. That is why I now measure the success of Greendesign by revenue and our annual financial statement.
Your focus on green buildings is about ensuring the sustainability of our planet. What can we each do to make a difference?
I think the first thing is to be considerate. I can tell people to save energy and avoid plastic when they can, but they will feel like they are giving up something, so my number one thing will be for all of us to think about how our actions could have a huge effect on the future of our planet and humanity.
Once we start being cognisant of our actions and how they contribute to the planet's longevity, we will be kinder to the planet.
What did you want to be when you were a child?
Engineering was not always a part of the plan for me. I always thought I would be a lawyer specialising in human rights law. I am passionate about ensuring that every person has an equal opportunity to make the change that they feel called to make in their generation and in their lifetime.
