Sustainability Award

The category recognises innovative, unusual or cutting edge approach to environmental, economic or social sustainability on a geotechnical project, between January 2024 and January 2025.

This could be in the form of reuse of materials or existing structures/foundations, innovation in redeveloping brownfield sites, use of technology/design to reduce carbon emissions, lasting benefits created in the local community or by the legacy of the project, or any other initiative that drives sustainability across the wider project. 

Carbon Zero Consulting
Open-loop GSHP district heating scheme

This is the first successful application of a ground source heat pump (GSHP)-based open-loop district heating scheme to decarbonise a large residential development on a brownfield site in central London. The GSHP design and implementation for this site overcame challenging site constraints, such as land contamination, a shallow groundwater table and working within a busy major construction site. The installed system has a very long design lifetime, will significantly reduce long-term consumption of fossil fuels with an estimated carbon saving of 24000 tonnes over 30 years. It utilises groundwater in a way that is entirely non-consumptive and has no detrimental impact on soil or water quality. This exemplary project supports a number of the UN SDGs as well as the beneficial reuse of previously industrial land and construction of much needed local housing in a sustainable way.

Fehily Timoney, John Sisk & Son and Ramboll
Dunkettle interchange upgrade scheme

The Dunkettle Interchange (DKI) Upgrade Scheme was a significant project involving upgrade of the existing Dunkettle interchange, a crucial intersection with high traffic volumes of over 100,000 vehicles daily. Situated 6km east of Cork City and north of the Jack Lynch Tunnel (JLT), DKI plays a strategic role in connecting major national routes. The project faced challenges due to its location, complex alignment, ground conditions, interfacing with the JLT operations, nearby industrial park, residential areas, the marine/port area, environmentally sensitive zones, and the Cork Midelton railway line. Traffic through the interchange was kept live throughout the project. The scheme officially opened on 12th February 2024.  The scheme involved 10km of new road links constructed in a constrained area of approximately 0.5km2, one new grade separated junction and associated structure, four new roundabouts, 2.9km of new active travel measures and 58 no. structures including underbridges, overbridges, retaining walls, gantries and culverts.

Fugro
Sustainable practices in Falmouth fabrication workshop

Fugro are dedicated to responsible business practices and sustainable infrastructure development. Our Falmouth complex, Fugro’s largest fabrication facility in the UK, exemplifies our commitment to sustainability. We have implemented several initiatives to reduce waste and environmental impact: Recyclable Rag Stations: Installed four stations, reduced oily rag waste by 68%, recycling 825 kg annually, reducing raw material demand, energy use, and water consumption. Solvent Reclaimer: Reduced VOC emissions by half and reclaimed 616 litres of thinners in 2024, cutting down new thinner purchases. PPE Recycling: Diverted significant waste from disposal, repurposing materials and saving 344 kg CO2e emissions in 2024. These initiatives demonstrate quantifiable environmental benefits, we plan on expanding these initiatives across other facilities and project sites, aiming to create lasting global change and support a circular economy by sharing UK successes with global colleagues. Our efforts demonstrate that sustainability can be achieved with determination and innovation.

LK Group
Sustainable transformation of a contaminated brownfield site: Carter House Way

This entry explains how one particularly contaminated brownfield site was successfully unlocked to develop 243 homes as a result of innovative contamination, waste classification and remediation strategy. This has achieved excellent sustainability outcomes, specifically: • Unlocked a large brownfield land site, thus reducing the need to develop on the green belt. • Significantly reduced the volume of waste to be taken off-site. This saved over 5,400 return lorry journeys and 361,800 kg of CO2 saved. • Significantly reduced the volume of waste to be disposed of safely. • Realised significant financial savings for the client, enabling a key housing development that would otherwise have stalled, to successfully proceed. • Prevented the possible contamination of the River Mersey. This project not only revitalises the local community but also sets a precedent for sustainable brownfield redevelopment, making it a deserving candidate for the 2025 GE.

Marshall Drilling
Hurst Farm carbon capture and habitat bank

Marshall Drilling have been able to achieve beyond net zero status by the creation of new habitat banks on their premises at Hurst Farm, allowing not only the achievement of net zero for the company but by significant increasing the habitat for wildlife in the local area. We have no started discussions with Wiltshire Wildlife Rescue to assist with the relocation or animals that have recovered from injury and are seeking release into the wild. This has now led to us pursuing a wider landscape strategy to increase the aesthetic of the local area, something we feel compelled to do as part of our social and corporate responsibility.

Skanska, Costain, Strabag, Arup and Typsa
HS2 Copthall Tunnel

The HS2 Copthall Tunnel represents an exemplary piece of sustainable engineering: achieving environmental and societal benefits alongside substantial cost and carbon savings. Challenging the reference design, the team developed a green cut-and-cover tunnel that reinstated the landscape over the railway: thus, benefiting the local community and the environment through the creation of diverse ecological habitat, reduced noise levels, natural connectivity and the creation of accessible space. As ‘cover’ to the tunnel structure, the team utilised site-won tunnel boring machine arisings from the construction of the Northolt Tunnels below central London, which otherwise would have been transported to landfill for disposal. These arisings contained naturally elevated sulphate, and with the addition of lime to improve their workability, there was a high risk of sulphate induced swelling and unacceptable pressure on the tunnel structure. However, the team successfully mitigated this risk through a combination of innovative design and extensive material trials.

SMP Alliance and Dawson Wam
Reusing steel sheet piles for sustainable highway construction

SMP Alliance and DAWSON-WAM achieved a groundbreaking milestone by reusing steel sheet piles for permanent works as part of the National Emergency Area Retrofit programme on the M4 smart motorway - the first such reuse in a National Highways project. Originally used for temporary earth retention on the Thames Tideway project, these sheet piles were repurposed for retaining wall works on the M4, marking a significant step forward in sustainable construction. Securing approval for this departure from the standards, which mandate new materials, required extensive collaboration and assessments to ensure safety, quality and performance. The reuse of 62,790kg of steel saved 173,300kg of CO2. This innovative approach demonstrates that sustainability can be achieved without compromising safety or performance, setting a precedent for future infrastructure projects. It highlights the potential for the construction industry to adopt greener practices, leading to more sustainable and cost-efficient solutions in UK highway development.

Soil Engineering Geoservices
Sharing our homework

Research, trials, and integration into a positive culture supporting a determination to do better led to Soil Engineering deploying a trio of carbon reduction measures across the business. Proving very successful (delivering a 23% year on year Scope 1&2 reduction) within our own business, we chose to share the opportunity not only in our own group, but with the wider ground investigation sector in order to support a wider improvement in industry performance. Presenting our research and the resulting data at a National Highways forum, and subsequently on social media, we’re proud to share our homework for the benefit of the wider world, and help our peers make informed choices.

Subterra Group
The Daubeney Project: Oxford Science Park

Subterra Group on behalf of Mace Construction carried out Value Engineered alternative design for the shared basement located beneath three life sciences buildings as part of the Daubeney Project, using the Subterra ReActive slab structural approach. The scheme consists of three life sciences buildings located over a shared single level basement, total footprint area of 13,800m2. By applying a holistic design and construction approached typically associated with super tall buildings they achieved an average of 70% reinforcement reduction and 20% concrete reduction, plus removal of 1042 piles and associated pile caps and ground beams. This resulted in an overall embodied carbon reduction of 2,140, 00kg when compared to the conforming design. Based on these figures, Mace achieved their annual Life Science group embodied carbon reduction on a single project. which is an unparalleled achievement in terms of any similar project built in the last 10 years in the UK.

VolkerFitzpatrick
Radlett Strategic Rail Freight Interchange ECI works

The vision for SEGRO Logistics Park Radlett is to create 335,000 sq m of state-of-the-art, sustainable logistics space, integrated with a Strategic Rail Freight Interchange (SRFI) and surrounded by 600 acres of managed woodland, conservation grazing, and public parkland. However, redevelopment was challenged by two historic landfills, Napsbury and Old Parkbury Tips, and the need to construct a 60m-wide underpass beneath the Midland Mainline (MML). To overcome these challenges, a collaborative, sustainable approach was developed, focusing on remediating only the rail chord and underpass footprints. An innovative mechanical recovery process allowed 67% of landfill material to be reused on site (recoverable soils), 33% processed for recycling, saving significant costs, time, and environmental impacts. This enabled underpass construction to begin 4 months earlier, meeting the revised Christmas 2024 deadline, and highlighted the transformative potential of landfill recovery for unlocking redevelopment across the UK.