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Reducing nitrogen pollution in waterways, testing indoor air quality, asbestos remediation, and more… Dr Terri-Ann Berry, Senior Lecturer and Environmental Researcher in Unitec’s Engineering Practice Pathway, and her engineering students are tackling issues that directly affect our health and habitat.

Berry is supervising several ongoing projects that focus on protecting humans and the environment from the consequences of human industry, and students from successive years contribute to many of these potential solutions:

• The impact of dairy farming on our waterways is one of New Zealand’s biggest environmental issues. Dr Terri-Ann Berry is spearheading an innovative research project to prevent nitrogen pollution from cows entering lakes and rivers.
• As technologies for increasing airtightness in homes became more common, Berry questioned the wisdom of using them in New Zealand’s often humid climate. Would the higher internal temperature cause more harmful VOCs (volatile organic compounds) to be released from furniture and paints, and trapped inside houses?
• Asbestos is a worldwide problem, and a health risk when inhaled as a fine dust, which is a particular problem in older buildings. Berry wondered, instead of burying asbestos in landfill, what if she could encourage bacteria or fungi to break down asbestos through bioremediation? She and others at Unitec are now collaborating with researchers at the universities of Canberra and Pennsylvania on the project.

Read the full story in the summer 2017 issue of Advance magazine.
Learn more about studying Engineering at Unitec.

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