As Atlan Stormwater’s National Fuels Representative, Alan McInnes brings a wealth of experience from the fuel sector with his prior experience in managing facilities, compliance and site optimisation. With a background in engineering, he brings a penchant for critical thinking, problem solving and innovation that helps our fuel clients develop compliant stormwater solutions.
What is your role at Atlan?
My role is officially National Fuels representative, so I am here to help make sure that all hydrocarbon spill containment products are well represented to our clients in the industry.
I deal a lot with the fuel clients and other clients that need any sort of hydrocarbon spill containment products.
What are the potential impacts of hydrocarbons that reach our waterways?
Hydrocarbons leaching into groundwater or waterways will have significant detrimental effects on the environment – look at any mass spill event and you can see the devastating impacts. Our products exist to protect our future from that happening.
‘Clean waterways are a right, not a privilege’ is a key part of our mission statement – hence why we design, manufacture, supply and install generational stormwater assets to capture hydrocarbons. We want clean water for our future.
What is the importance of compliance, sustainability and ESG in the fuel sector?
We work with our clients to ensure they are compliant with their legal responsibility to not pollute the environment – and meet legislative requirements that have been built into various environmental acts and regulations in our states and territories for the last twenty to thirty years.
Our clients have powerful brands they need to protect – and no one wants to end up in the news for irresponsible outcomes like contaminating waterways.
Why is maintenance essential to managing stormwater assets on fuel sites?
I think there’s a common misconception that all you need is to outlay quite significant capital expense on a few pieces of equipment. However, cycle costing and ongoing maintenance are super critical.
Compare it to your car – what happens if you drive, and you don’t get a service? Equipment is no different, it will eventually fail unless you implement a solid maintenance program – but if you do, it will last for generations and will guarantee sustainable outcomes for many years.
How do you spend your time outside work?
I come from rural New Zealand with a father who loved fishing and diving. So, I’ve always been surrounded by water. I love nothing more than going for a holiday at the beach, so the outdoors is really important to me. The responsibility of looking after it is something that I instil on my own children.