Delivering a rapid shift to renewables calls for a new way of thinking, but this goes beyond new technology. It’s also about empowering the engineers at the core of this monumental transition – and one team is already leading the charge.
At the close of 2024, approximately 40 per cent of Australia’s total electricity generation came from a combination of renewable energy sources.
While this has almost doubled since 2020, the energy sector still needs to double this figure again in less than five years to meet decarbonisation targets and to satisfy the country’s growing demand.
According to Agilitus Managing Director, Craig Bloxham, projects need to go beyond a traditional engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) approach to achieve this – but what will really be fundamental to success is selecting engineers with a certain mindset.
“Success will be achieved from a combination of early involvement of engineers and with clients adopting an integrated project approach,” he said.
“But more than anything, it’s working with engineers who are focused on removing inefficiencies and who challenge traditional engineering to drive fit-for-purpose innovative outcomes.”
Mr Bloxham said the only way to achieve this approach is by developing a high-performance workplace culture.
“Our culture is an unrelenting, deliberate focus on investing in our people,” he said.
“When people feel safe and secure in their work environment, they are empowered to deliver exceptional results.
“This goes beyond technical excellence. It’s about understanding our clients’ fundamental issues and solve complex challenges
“It’s a way of being for our team. Driving the energy transition for clients is a significant responsibility and one that we take seriously.”
Where it all began
In the 1990s, Mr Bloxham was fresh out of university and making his first foray into the industry when he met fellow graduate Tony Comerford – and the pair started their careers together at a large, well‑reputed business in North Queensland.
However, the company’s priorities shifted as it grew, and over time Mr Comerford and Mr Bloxham saw that the core business elements needed for high-quality engineering services were beginning to fall away.
“We found was that it was actually becoming increasingly difficult to provide really good quality services,” Mr Bloxham said,
“Because with the corporatised approach to engineering and design you have to compromise, and the culture around decision making became very risk averse, and decisions were made by other parties who really didn’t truly understand technical work.
“It was just becoming increasingly difficult to do what we enjoy doing, which is to provide high‑quality engineering design services and advisory services.”
Staying on the path of least resistance meant watering down their design values. So in 2017, while fishing at their favourite secret location in Western Australia, the duo decided to forge their own way ahead, and established what would eventually be known as Agilitus.
“We aspired to be medium sized, privately owned, and highly reputable with clear differentiation of unpretentious, quality problem-solving engineering, design and project management,” Mr Bloxham said
“To achieve this, we understood how important building a united interdependent culture was to provide quality services based on strong customer service.
“So, we attracted the best people we knew in the industry, and then we built a culture where people felt safe and secure, while fostering teamwork, quick decision making, and solving problems for clients.”
Nurturing excellence
For Mr Bloxham, culture is built on people.
“It’s how we show up for each other, the trust we create, and build an environment that cares, which is reinforced through our actions with each other and our clients,” he said.
Agilitus’ vision is to be the most sought-after global multi-discipline engineering business; attracting and employing the best people with like-minded values while working on projects that make a difference to our communities.
For Mr Bloxham and Mr Comerford’s vision to work, culture must be more than a surface level buzzword, rather it needed to be baked into recruitment, leadership development, ownership, and behaviour expectations across day‑to‑day operations.
“We look for people who deliver technical excellence, but what I’m really interested in, is how they lead and work with each other and clients,” Mr Bloxham said.
“We employ the most qualified people who have a mindset of listening and understanding client needs, being consistently reliable, and delivering value for money services.
“It’s very pleasing to hear the team say that Agilitus is a great place to work, because they feel like everybody’s out to find and help them be successful.”
Fighting the commoditisation of engineering
While the value of building a strong culture is not new, Mr Bloxham is fighting the trend of the commoditisation of engineering services.
“To some, engineering has become a transactional service. We’ve found clients who value engineering as the foundation pillar for their project – who are willing to challenge convention, and this ensures there is no challenge too great to solve,” he said.
While the clean energy transition is complex, Mr Bloxham believes that’s even more reason why working alongside an engineering business with a culture of caring is fundamental to driving success.
“We can build this culture because we’re 100 per cent employee-owned. We’re all personally invested in the success of our business and its projects. This means we simply deliver engineering projects better,” he said.
Agilitus has now become one of the largest privately owned engineering businesses in Australia.
“How we care about our client projects is a very visible and tangible thing for clients,” Mr Bloxham said.
“Care is our fit-for-purpose approach providing certainty of outcome, constructability assurance, and safe execution. Care is being a collaborative partner that clients can rely on. It’s about focusing on what matters most to our clients, which is achieved through the provision of reliable, resilient and responsive services.
“We deliver this through reducing execution costs, lowering project risk, improving safety, and maximising asset lifecycle efficiency. It’s achieved by being intrinsically aligned to client needs.
“This results in quality deliverables and value-for-money solutions to produce better long-term project outcomes. This approach is why many of our clients return to us time and again.”
The real energy difference
According to Agilitus’s clients, the company’s point of difference is its reliable, consistent quality customer service.
“We deliver this by building a multidiscipline team of permanent inhouse team members who are empowered and invested in our client’s success,” Mr Bloxham said.
“When we employ people, we always offer permanent roles because we want you to work for us to the day you retire. We see it as a journey through your whole career.”
For Mr Bloxham, all of this leads to stronger client trust.
Hitting 83 per cent renewable energy by 2030 will be a hard-won victory, but by working with engineers that care and invested in delivering solid outcomes, Mr Bloxham is hopeful that Australia will succeed.
“We find projects in the energy space are heavily invested in challenging conventions to deliver superior outcomes. That’s the space we work well in and can truly make a difference. We have some exciting energy projects on the go and we’re continuing to take on new ones,” he said.
“The projects are very technical and complex, but because we back ourselves, we’re not afraid of them. We also do everything, from the front-end advisory work and independent peer reviews, to design, implementation and commissioning.
“And because we’re a widely capable we deliver engineering and design across all disciplines – with specialist capability in energy, geotechnical, rail, ports and marine and digital and AI capabilities.”
At the end of the day, Agilitus shows that a reliable, affordable, renewable future isn’t going to be powered by new technology alone.
Tomorrow’s energy sector is only going to be as great as the people delivering it.
For more information, visit agilitus.com
