Terry Fonstad, Ph.D., P.Eng., P.Ag., FEC
I’m excited to welcome everyone to this issue of The Professional Edge featuring Geoscience. You’ll find articles highlighting amazing companies as well as one highlighting innovation in Saskatchewan and another that looks back to help us look forward.
Innovation by geoscientists, engineers and many others has helped us to develop Saskatchewan’s rich natural resources for the benefit of the world. Since the 1950s, the world population has tripled. When you add climate change to this, it is clear that sustainability in further development of our resources must be the governing principle.
For geoscientist and engineers, this must include environmental and social responsibility, in addition to cost effectiveness. For me, this is more than minimizing environmental or social impact. There is true value in designs that improve the environment and we must find ways to allow our designs to achieve the social and cultural vision of the peoples where we work.
In this issue you’ll find an article about how RESPEC shows girls and young women a bright future in mining. Dig a little deeper and you find a statement on RESPEC’s website, “The answers to the problems we solve can’t be found in the back of a textbook. We create smart solutions for even the most impossible of situations.”
Any true geoscientist or engineer should find this an irresistible draw. To be able to “create smart solutions for even the most impossible of situations” – we live for this stuff.
Since we’re digging deeper on the companies featured in the issue, have a look at the mission statement on the DIAS website, “adding value by delivering useful knowledge through innovation and resolve”. What an impactful statement in less than a dozen works. “Adding value” and “delivering useful knowledge” should always be our mission, but “through innovation and resolve” is such insight. Combining innovation with resolve is unstoppable.
There is a growing trend related to the need for society to consider the circular flow of energy and materials. It is my understanding that this concept of circular flows is deeply rooted in Indigenous culture.
This is such a timely topic as we search ways “of integrating scientific information and Indigenous knowledge into decision-making processes” (Canadian Impact Assessment Act, 2019) as we continue on the path of sustainable development of Saskatchewan’s resources.