Olaf Fennis - Manager Technology, Innovation & Business development
Meet Olaf Fennis, an environmental technologist who has been working in the waste industry for 20 years and has been with Renewi since April 2021, now as Manager Technology, Innovation & Business development. ‘Last year, I was asked to set up my own engineering team within Commercial Waste Netherlands (CW NL). We are currently working on projects involving large technical components. This requires a lot of engineering work to be successful,’ says Olaf. ‘We are looking for people who fit our business. You must be used to conceiving, developing and accessing large process installations, be creative and collaborative.’
Creativity and collaboration
Team Engineering is largely about creativity and collaboration. ‘Think, for example, of an installation that turns concrete blocks into granules, a complete sorting installation that extracts various types of wood, rubble, plastic and paper from industrial waste or improving an existing unpacking line for over-date material. They are often existing techniques, but it is precisely by creatively combining different parts and working together that makes this so high quality.’
‘Another project we are working on is automating sorting work processes using Artificial Intelligence. With a team of specialists (engineers, data and IT specialists), we establish a vision of what we want to achieve and how we are going to achieve it. We then work out a complete roadmap, including conducting tests that demonstrate the (im)possibilities.’
Distinctive Tech & Engineering
Renewi distinguishes itself from competitors in thinking ahead. ‘I am convinced that we are stronger in concept thinking from customer at the front end, to suitable technical installations, to customer at the back end and the associated collaboration with colleagues who interact with customers who do ultimately buy our products. And futureproofing that picture.’
Engineers with passion
What makes working at Renewi fun is the space to follow your passion. Whether it's your passion for sustainability or simply engineering. At Team Engineering, freedom is created for engineers to engage with technology in an innovative way with a view to the future of being able to make more and more products from waste.
There are also career opportunities. A good example of this is Ruud van der Vrande, who started as an intern and is still employed today. In fact, he is working on the realisation of his own project to use advanced technologies to process even more plastics into new raw materials at even better quality by 2023. Currently one of the most important projects within CWNL that started with the simple question: ‘How can the plastic recycling process be improved?’