Arup Community Partnering Programs

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Arup Community Partnering Programs At Arup, we involve the company and its employees in humanitarian and charitable activities as a key part of our philosophy to help shape a better world.

At the heart of all our projects is the urge to build a more sustainable future – for everyone. As Ove Arup, our founder said: “our lives are inextricably mixed up with those of our fellow human beings, and that there can be no real happiness in isolation.”

In many parts of the world, communities often face insurmountable challenges each and every day. We feel a responsibility to support these co

mmunities, to help them become more self-reliant and resilient, and not suffer in isolation. We can, and we are making a difference in many cases by offering funds and skills. Apart from donating 1% of our profits each year, we also encourage staff to volunteer their technical skills and know-how across a broad range of projects and activities. These include education, social care, health and welfare, disaster relief and poverty alleviation, local community development, sustainability and the environment, and technology. For Arup and its employees, it is a rewarding and satisfying experience that has created and developed strong bonds. We are connecting with other parts of the world that need our help; at the same time, we are putting into practice our commitment to our Corporate Social Responsibility which is key to our Corporate Sustainability Plan

28/08/2014

In April/May this year, the Arup Brisbane office hosted an Australian first – we ran the first Work Inspiration (WI) program for the Engineering industry. The WI program aims to connect industry directly with schools to develop work experience placements that provide more breadth and depth than ‘traditional’ work experience. The Brisbane office hosted eight Year 11 students from Kelvin Grove State College for six weekly afternoon sessions, during which they undertook activities to explore the different roles in our firm, and how their own strengths and personality traits might fit in with the diverse world of engineering.
Through our partnership with The Smith Family, the Sydney and Melbourne offices are now designing their own WI programs, which will aim to target students who have social or economic disadvantages, to inspire them to reach their full potential once they have finished school. We hope to make this an annual program run in the Brisbane office.
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As part of the pilot program, we received funding from the Federal Government to produce a promotional video, which we can use to show to clients, competitors and the community in which we work. We see this program as an opportunity to develop in three key areas, namely community engagement, business development and staff development. We hope in future programs to collaborate with other firms to create an even greater work experience program and to target schools involved in The Smith Family’s Learning for Life program.
A huge thank you to those staff who were involved in the great success of this pilot program – the groundwork has now been done so that future programs will be even more effective for much less effort.

27/06/2014

A longstanding NGO, the (MTC) is situated in Mae Sot, Thailand, bordering Burma/Myanmar, with a predominantly Burmese population. MTC fills a gap in healthcare services by serving the displaced populations both sides of the border. It seeks to treat and prevent deaths from highly prevalent conditions within the community such as malaria, diarrhoea and HIV, whilst also offering a comprehensive health care service including: adult, child, and reproductive health inpatient and outpatient services, surgery, eye clinic, dental clinic, a prosthetics service, counselling and acupuncture. MTC also hosts a pharmacy, a laboratory, a blood bank, an infection prevention unit, health information systems and referral services, and runs extensive school health and reproductive health outreach programmes. In addition MTC serves as a centre for advocacy for issues related to the migrant community.

The current MTC site is located on leased land. Rising rents have resulted in MTC struggling to cover costs. MTC is therefore moving onto land that is already owned, by its sister organisation the Suwannimit Foundation, which will therefore significantly reduce costs and improve the sustainability of the MTC.

Whilst the masterplan for the relocation was completed in-house, MTC approached Arup for advice on the drainage and wastewater infrastructure design, as they do not have in-house engineering consultants. The wastewater system at the current site is dysfunctional, with chlorinated waste being collected almost daily by tankers; the MTC team is very aware that a safe and sustainable system is an essential requirement of the new clinic. In addition, Arup was invited to design the new Child Protection Centre (CPC): a place of outreach, education and community-building. Building on our multi-disciplinary expertise, MTC trusted Arup to play an integral part, through sensitive and effective design, in providing a more resilient, healthy and happy community in Mae Sot.



Construction of the new MTC is now well underway. Arup’s design of the CPC has been completed and embraced by MTC; construction will begin later this year. Advice on the wastewater collection and treatment system has been extensive and basic agreement on the principles and design to be followed has been reached: with this Arup input, a safe and sustainable collection, treatment and disposal system should be incorporated in the new clinic build. It is anticipated, however, that the dialogue regarding the wastewater system will continue until the system is fully constructed.
An important community role
The Mae Tao Clinic forms an invaluable service within the local community on multiple levels: filling a gap in local healthcare it directly benefits the individuals with nowhere else to go for healthcare, and also provides a centre and a voice for displaced people. The number served by the clinic has risen by around 20% annually, recently stabilising at around 150,000 visitors per year. By contributing to design of the new Mae Tao Clinic, Arup is contributing directly to improving conditions for the considerable underprivileged populations in the region.



The critical and sensitive design of the Child Protection Centre for the new Mae Tao Clinic hopes to play an essential part in the necessary change to long-standing social and political suppressions in the Mae Sot community. Through design of a good community healing space Arup hopes to stimulate a healthier, happier and more resilient community.

The current Clinic site includes no water reuse, despite the presence of rainwater collection tanks. The septic system is simply one of collection in a large septic tank (which does not operate as originally intended), where it is chlorinated and then removed by tanker. Through collaborative design for the new MTC of safe and effective rainwater and wastewater collection, reuse and disposal systems – within the considerable practical restraints offered by the local conditions (to list a few hurdles: the area is prone to seasonal flooding; the site sits on clay with little absorptive properties; there are no sewers in the vicinity) – Arup hopes to ensure the new Clinic site drainage and wastewater systems make the most of the available resources whilst being safe, sustainable and minimising the potential negative impacts on the environment or to community health.

This project has provided Arup with an invaluable learning experience, introducing new discussion points and challenging our existing attitudes: something we consider to be key to being leaders in thought and pushing the boundaries of healthcare design in the future.

19/06/2014

In March this year, 17 Arup staff members from our Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Singapore offices participated in the WaterAid Walk for Water event. By joining the campaign, the Arup team members committed to walk 10,000 steps a day for five days to raise much needed funds for WaterAid – a charity organization that transforms lives by improving access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene in the world’s poorest communities; including our neighbors in Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste.

Collectively Arup staff from the Australasia region raised $2,979.48 and Arup matched this amount from its Community Engagement fund, an approximate total of $6K that Arup and its staff donated to WaterAid this. The event has been a huge success as evident from the amount of funds raised and the number of active participants as well as support from the wider Arup community who generously donated for this great cause.

 

Below are a few quotes from some of the participants sharing their experience of participation in the Walk for Water event:
“Nelson Mandela once said ‘let there be work, bread, water and salt for all’ – a simple, yet powerful message that it is still relevant in the 21st century. When I learned Arup was supporting the Walk 4 Water campaign, I enthusiastically joined the team to show my support for this extremely worthwhile cause. My journey to walk 10,000 steps a day was a great reminder of how easy it is to take water for granted and to reflect on those less fortunate. If in some small way, we have helped to improve access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene for the developing world, than every step was worthwhile!”
- Sarah Booij, Arup Brisbane Office

 
“Walking 10,000 steps per day for Walk 4 Water was really great. It gave me a real appreciation of how far some people have to walk on a daily basis just to have access to something that I can get in 20 steps. I walked either by myself or with my friends or partner and I posted each day on Facebook to gain donations. Everyone was really happy to help and I personally raised $230. I will make Walk 4 Water a yearly event!”
- Katie Mackenzie, Arup Sydney Office

 
“I really enjoyed my time walking. I had this competition with myself with walking further and further each day according to the trusty pedometer I clocked up 114,980 steps, which was plenty of time to think about those less fortunate than myself not only walking but having to carry water back without tripping or anything.

Everyone that knew I was doing this were so supportive and encouraging which inspired me to want to walk more.

Lesson learnt: not to sing out loud with headphones on, there are other people around that just pop out of nowhere – laughing.”
- Lynette Townsend, Arup Adelaide Office

23/05/2014

In April 2014, Arup’s Australasia HR Director, Di Cross, made a pledge to wear a set of Minnie Mouse ears for one week to raise much needed funds for the School of St Jude in Tanzania.

The School’s mission is to educate disadvantaged bright students from the Arusha District to become moral and intellectual leaders in their country, and for St Jude’s to thereby demonstrate educational leadership in Tanzania. During the week, Di wore her ears to all meetings and discussions held in the office, and certainly raised a few eyebrows on public transport!

“Wearing mouse ears for a week was a memorable experience – lots of fun & a very good study in human behaviour! Raising money for such a great charity made it all very worthwhile”

Di kept followers up to date with photos and video via twitter () and raised more than $1000 for the school.

23/05/2014

For the past 18 months the Arup Sydney Office has had the opportunity through the Arup Community Engagement Program to be involved in the Ronald McDonald House Randwick (RMHR) Corporate Dinners Program. RMHR is a home away from home for sick children and the families of sick children. The Corporate Dinners Program gets organisations (like Arup) into the house to cook dinners for the children and their families.

This affords the families:

More time with their children.
Removes some of the financial burden from what is already a very stressful time. Many of the parents of these children must give up their jobs during their child’s treatment.

The following is a summary of what Arup staff involvement in the RMHR corporate dinners program is all about:

Arup has booked dinners for the coming year.
There is normally about 50-60 mouths to feed so about 8-10 Arup staff are required.

The dinners are often themed and quite enjoyable. All staff that have been involved to date have really experienced a great sense of achievement by way of giving back to the community. They usually re-volunteer to make sure they don’t miss out on future dinners.

This project has great potential to be rolled out across Australia and we are hoping to be able to continue our support in the upcoming years, both in NSW and other states.

19/05/2014

In late 2013 Arup joined numerous other consultants and tradesman in donating their time to restore the Rocky Creek Igloo for use as a war relic and memorial. Located near Atherton in far north Queensland, the Igloo remains one of the few intact buildings on the Atherton Tablelands that was built specifically for services during World War II. It formed part of a hospital camp complex for servicemen in the Pacific Region during the war. At its peak, the hospital had a total of 3000 beds which included wards for dysentery, malaria, mental illness and the usual battle wounds.



Arup was approached by the building’s trustees, the Rotary Club of Atherton, through Gayle Plunkett Architect to analyse and justify the original curved timber trusses to current Australian loading and timber standards. This involved creating a structural model which accurately reflected the real geometry, timber properties and loads seen by the trusses. Particular challenges which were encountered during this analysis included:

Assessing the internal stresses induced by bending the timber to form the curved profile
Assessing real material properties of the 70 year old timber
Devising connection and ‘total truss’ strengthening details.



With support from timber experts in Arup’s Advanced Technology and Research group in London, our local engineers were able to recommend various strengthening details which would enable truss members to comply with the required standards. However, the geometry of the original connections meant that these could not be directly justified using these standards.

Arup recommended that physical testing be performed to determine whether the actual connections could resist the forces predicted in the structural model. While it is difficult to speculate on possible results, physical testing often provides higher connection strengths than are calculated directly from the standard.

Arup looks forward to assisting with physical testing in the future.

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