Building Back Better Post Pandemic - Sustainable Infrastructure, Efficient Spending, and Innovative Engineering

This is perhaps the first challenge that many companies faced. Rapid-technology adoption. Some companies, particularly small and medium companies, did not count on the latest technologies, with integrated systems that allowed them to be as productive from working from home as they were working in the offices.

This becomes a challenge in companies that heavily relied on “antique” ways of working, and they had to heavily evolve and adopt whatever new technology became available that were cost-effective and perhaps that simplified the learning curve. No one will ever forget the “You´re on mute” phrase at virtually every meeting we´ve all had. This represented a challenge, but it also allowed many companies to understand that technology can allow us to be more productive in our work, that it can keep us connected and that we can exploit it in our favour.

The use of technology has allowed us to maintain contact with existing relationships, but it has allowed us to establish new relationships. Many of us can say that the use of technology has allowed us to build some great relationships with clients that we have never met before. The constant conversations with them have felt like we´ve had a long trustworthy relationship with them, even though we have never met them before.

We have learned that our families and friends will be there when work is tough, with no work and excessive workload. The pandemic has allowed us to get closer with family and friends, get to know more about them, their lives and realise that there is more than work.

A great challenge and perhaps something that we did not account for, however, has resulted in many individuals being always connected and as such, always available. Although technology has allowed us to maintain the connection to the world, to our friends and clients, it has also made us entirely available. For some, this might be great, but for some others, a curse. When does the working time end? When do we stop work and enjoy our family? Where´s the separation between our home and our office? Perhaps these are some questions that most of us have thought about at least once.

This has resulted in people considering issues that no one previously wanted to discuss. Most of us are now conscious about the necessity of having an adequate work-life balance, the importance of mental health, and taking some time off for personal activities that we indeed do require.

It is understandable that, as of now, most of the population do not want to talk about the pandemic anymore. I believe that we are eager to continue with our lives and are very much looking forward to resuming our activities and life as we knew it. It will be challenging and simple things like how we used to greet people might be entirely different, but we have learned how to become closer, even at a distance. This past year has taught us that regardless of the sector we work in, we do have a great community, and we all tried to help or support in any way we could, from people coming up with great initiatives to support their local communities to companies producing content sharing experiences from the impact of the pandemic in different sectors to education institutions adapting to the needs of the students and the capability of the medical personnel and their tireless efforts to control the spread of the virus.

Perhaps the greatest lesson that I can take out of this pandemic is the tireless efforts that we have all made to overcome the tough times that we have been living. If we all collaborate, we can keep moving forward even in the most challenging circumstances.

I am optimistic that the experiences we have lived during the pandemic have made us realise and understand the importance of the work we all do. It has made us conscious of how each of our industries contributes to the well-being of our society and how they are all interrelated and connected in certain ways.

From the consulting engineering perspective, I can say that many challenges are still yet to come that will be needed to be resolved to recuperate the pause in which the infrastructure development went through. Still, I am confident that our community will assume a leadership position to get back on track for the objectives we all have.