Lisa joined Envirosoft in November 2019 after almost 20 years in industry. She was recently promoted to Manager of Engineering and EHS in August 2022. She attended the University of Saskatchewan and received a Bachelor of Engineering with a geological engineering discipline. This month, Lisa shared her trajectory into emissions management, lessons on managing stress with bike rides and teamwork, and planning adventures.
How did you get into the environmental space?
L: In my previous roles, I was a productions engineer and then a reservoir engineer and a development engineer and a completions engineer and then back to production engineering, so I didn't start out in environmental. But, in my last role as a production engineer, I was on a multi-discipline team where we were changing out pneumatics to decrease venting in advance of some regulation changes. I found the operations part of that team interesting, working to decrease emissions, so I started looking towards the environment and for opportunities to do more of that work.
Tell me about what your role looks like day-to-day.
L: Now, in a management role, I find myself planning more. We had a deadline at the end of September, and in that week, I was still planning October in order to be ready for November. I spend more time planning the future more, and that’s something I’ve always liked to do, so it's a good fit. Today, I spent the whole day working with clients and I like that. When you’ve worked with a few clients long enough, you get to know them really well and meeting is easy. You just talk about what works and what everyone needs.
What’s your favourite part about your role?
L: My favourite part of the role is feeling the sense of accomplishment when you’ve successfully met deadlines and your clients are happy.
Tell me about how you feel about the impact of the work we do on the environment.
L: It’s difficult to make decisions if you don’t have the right information. Our job is to collect and calculate and provide the right information. I think that our role is to provide the information to make decisions to help our clients reduce their emissions if they want to, or provide information to the government to know where we’re at and make decisions about where we need to go in making our reduction targets.
Do you ever wish you could write the regulations?
Well, I do think there’s a benefit to having people with industry experience working on and having input on the regulations so yes, in a way I do wish I could help. But as far as the way regulations are written, I don’t think I’m cut out for that. [laughs] That’s not my forte.
What’s something you’ve learned in the last month?
L: I've learnt a lot about myself and how I deal with stress. Personally, I feel like I get worked up about stress, and that’s valid, but if I’m presented with support, that stress can be alleviated. Realizing that I have support from people that I work with, and understanding if you explain the situation and what we need to solve the problems we have, we have the support to solve those issues. Learning to accept help.
What are some of your eco-friendly habits?
L: I ride my bike to work everyday. No emissions there! I just love it, and it helps me clear my mind on the way home, that’s handy too. We recycle and compost when we can, I try to use reusable cups, and we live in a fairly new home that’s pretty energy efficient. We used to have a camping trailer with solar panels on it.
What do you like to do outside work?
L: In the summer, we mountain bike and in the winter, we ski. My kids were in a ski race program, and now they compete in Big Mountain skiing. My son now both coaches and competes. He's going into university, engineering at U of C. I think his interests are mostly in the areas of biomedical engineering and medicine. My girls (twins) just started grade 10.
Do you have any trips planned?
L: I’m the organizer and that plays into the things I like to do now, the planning. I like to plan trips and go places. Spur of the moment, my husband and I decided to go on a mountain bike trip next week. Destination undecided, it will be based on weather. We’re either going to Vancouver Island or just south of the border, maybe Idaho or Montana? We’ve got 8/9 days. If the weather turns or if it’s smoky, we’ll go straight down south to Utah.
Do you have a book or podcast you’d like to recommend or share?
L: I like the Arc Energy podcast; I think it’s really good for anyone interested in reducing emissions. They talk about a lot of cool stuff.
Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, Lisa!
