ABSTRACT
Being invited to work within complex teams on major projects with sustainable development goals can raise doubts about our potential contribution as human factors and ergonomics (HFE) practitioners. In this chapter, we discuss what we might commonly bring to such exercises. Examples used are predominantly from the last three decades in New Zealand. Three broad areas of contribution covered are: systems approaches, our knowledge of human diversity and how to apply it, and our skills and insights regarding iterative development, from rapid prototyping to interventions that transform at intergenerational intervals. Concluding comments touch upon potentially unhelpful contributions we may bring, before calling for a greater HFE engagement at the very beginning of endeavors translating knowledge into social, individual, cultural, environmental, and economic capital.
