For Olenka Garavito Ruas, environmental engineering has always been about creating a better future, even if the path there was not what she first imagined.
“When I first started studying environmental engineering, I thought my work would be mostly about ecosystems,” she says. “But very quickly, I realised the biggest impact happens inside industry, where the decisions are made and the systems are run.”
That insight shaped her career. Olenka began working in the mining sector, drawn to the scale and complexity of industrial operations and the opportunity to influence environmental outcomes from within.
“A mine is like a small city,” she explains. “You’re managing energy, waste, water, and people. If you improve the systems, you can make a real difference, especially in how you protect land and waterways over time.”
What continues to drive her is the practical side of environmental work: understanding the receiving environment and reducing real impacts on the ground. She is particularly interested in how projects manage water quality, erosion and sediment control, waste streams and long-term rehabilitation outcomes.
Before joining Lidiar Group, Olenka built strong experience across corporate sustainability, ESG frameworks, climate strategy, Net Zero commitments, carbon footprint calculations and environmental management systems. At Lidiar Group, she continues that trajectory, supporting clients with environmental approvals, EMS uplift, ISO 14001 implementation and sustainability advisory services.
Olenka’s role sits at the intersection of regulation, strategy and day-to-day delivery. She helps clients translate high-level sustainability commitments into practical actions, from developing fit-for-purpose procedures to establishing KPIs that teams can genuinely use.
“Not every business needs hundreds of documents,” she says. “The key is understanding what really matters for that industry and that project, the actual risks to the environment, and building systems people will actually follow.”
She works with both large organisations, often driven by investor expectations and sustainability ratings, and smaller businesses that are at an earlier stage of their environmental journey.
“For some clients, this is completely new,” she says. “Our role is to ask the right questions and help them build systems they can grow into, rather than overwhelm them.”
Olenka is particularly passionate about the role environmental management plays in reputation, community trust and long-term resilience. She sees sustainability as something that must be demonstrated in practice, not just described in reports.
“Stakeholders are much more informed now,” she says. “If you say you are doing something for the environment, you need to be able to show it.”
Her ideal projects are those where she can work closely with operations teams, leadership and communities to deliver outcomes that balance environmental protection and social responsibility.
“It is all connected,” she says. “Environment, people and business. If one is ignored, the others feel it.”