Story Contracting are proud to have won two awards yesterday at Network Rail’s North West & Central and Eastern Safety, Health, and Environment Leadership Team (SHELT) Awards.
Under the category of ‘Railways Fit for the Future’, Story took the prize for the development of the Sustainable Construction Review (SCR).
Spearheaded by Senior Environment and Ecology Advisor Hannah Messenger, Story has developed and championed the SCR initiative, in collaboration with Network Rail. The SCR is undertaken during the early design stages of a project, allowing for effective consideration of whole life carbon, Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), circular economy, climate change and weather resilience and social value.
The team delivering a new bridleway bridge at Lindsells Crossing in Biggleswade were able to identify multiple sustainability opportunities through the SCR, resulting in significant carbon savings through value engineering of the ramps of the footbridge. This meant that 12 steel ramp sections and 36 steel piles were removed from design, saving 62.8T CO2 in material production, 800L of fuel and 2T CO2 from plant and generators and 5.2T CO2 of material removed from the transport supply chain.
The SCR also identified opportunities for BNG and social value, increasing the visual appeal of the structure for the local community and enhancing wildlife in the area. £75,000 was allocated to BNG, enabling the planting of 3,000+ native shrubs, 88 trees with biodegradable guards, 3,200m2 woodland edge mix and 122m2 wildflower mix.
Hannah commented: “This is a fantastic achievement for the Story Environment Team bringing home the award following the success of our Sustainable Construction Review process and the embodied carbon savings achieved through design on our Lindsells project. It is a huge positive step ensuring ‘Sustainable by Design’ is business as usual and reflecting this in our standard engineering processes.”
The second award won was the ‘Individual Achievement Award’ which was presented to Joanne Moore, Environment and Ecology Advisor for all of the work she has been doing to educate, upskill and lead environmental change in the industry.
Joanne reflected on the experience saying: “A special thank you to everyone that has supported me within Story and I’m sure our Environment Team can continue to succeed and develop innovative methods to achieve projects focused on environmentally conscious construction.”
The VolkerRailStory Joint Venture also achieved highly commended in the category of ‘Railway that helps Communities Thrive’, for the social value delivered during the Hope Valley Railway Upgrade works.
Lynsey Gilfillan, Group HSQE Director, attended the event and said: “It makes me immensely proud to see Hannah and Joanne recognised by the industry for the industry leading work they have been doing around Sustainable Construction Reviews and driving knowledge and awareness of sustainability, ecology, and the environment though our operational delivery teams. A credit to themselves and their regions, both have demonstrated not only our value of ‘Do it Right’ but also embodied the clients’ principles of SPEED by driving integrity and trust and being accountable, empowered and outcomes focused. Huge congratulations to both winners.”
