Jacqueline Lawrence-Sansbury
Environment Manager at Auckland Council
Living in Auckland, New Zealand
Jacqueline has worked in the environmental field for most of her career since graduating from the University of Plymouth in 2000. Starting in the private waste management industry in the UK, Jacqueline then moved to a not-for-profit organisation supporting the UK commercial composting industry. She then found herself at the Environment Agency in the UK as an environmental regulator and discovered she had a natural affinity to methodically investigating issues and working with others to identify solutions.
Her journey to New Zealand in 2008 took her to Auckland Regional Council, now Auckland Council. Continuing her regulatory path, Jacqueline has worked at Auckland Council in multiple roles for over 12 years. A short break to work with the National Environmental Protection Authority in Wellington in 2014 strengthened Jacqueline’s capability to work strategically and across multiple regulatory platforms.
It is her current role as Environment Manager in the Research and Evaluation Unit (RIMU) at Auckland Council that has proven to be in equal measures the most rewarding and the most challenging. RIMU is the council’s centre for environmental, social, economic and cultural research. Jacqueline manages one of three environment teams in the Unit; the Air, Land and Biodiversity team. The team of 13 scientists collect, analyse and communicate data and evidence to multiple stakeholders and decision makers on air quality, emissions, wetlands, dunes, forests, seabirds, marine ecology, marine habitats, marine sediment contaminants and soils.
The team is talented, diverse and unique, but balancing the constraints associated with delivering independent, robust and relevant environmental programmes to inform quality decisions in a local government context makes her smile and grimace hourly; she hopes that the Homeward Bound experience will help her become a better leader to support her team.
