ERM wins five awards for environmental excellence

Atkins, Enviros and Arup also win awards at annual event for the green consultancy sector

Some of the biggest names in UK environmental consultancy were given awards for their work at the 2008 Awards for environmental excellence, organised by publishing group Faversham House.

Jonathon Porritt, who received the award of ‘Green personality of the year’, told the audience gathered at the Natural History Museum in London on Thursday 13 November that the UK’s environmental consultancy sector deserves more recognition. He mentioned that on a recent visit to Abu Dhabi he was told by many he met that the UK is viewed as a global leader in the provision of environmental expertise.

ERM topped the awards league table, winning five awards, including those for consultancy work in the fields of contaminated land, due diligence, climate change and renewables, and environmental impact assessment/ strategic environmental assessment. (ERM Director Mark Irvine is pictured in the middle above with Edie editor Sam Bond on the left and awards compere, comedian Alistair McGowan, on the right.)

Keryn James, ERM’s managing partner for UK and Ireland said: “Winning five awards is a direct result of the enthusiasm and incredible contribution of our people. Even under the current challenging economic conditions, our staff continue to bring their considerable energies and innovative ideas to bear on behalf of our clients.”

The award for ‘Best environmental consultancy 2008’ went to Atkins, which also won the award for best consultant in the water and wastewater sector. Meanwhile, Waterman Environmental Services won the award for best project in the water and wastewater sector, for work with National Express designed to curb the company’s water consumption. Changes to National Express’ coach washing procedures led to an 85% reduction in water use and a 60% cut in costs.

Enviros won the award for best consultancy in the field of waste and recycling. The firm’s marketing director Nigel Clark told Environment Analyst that the consultancy was very pleased to win and to have been short-listed in so many categories.

Arup’s director of environmental consulting, Paul Johnson, said he and his colleagues were “chuffed” to receive the award for best consultancy to work for. Arup is owned by its employees, via a trust, and this award is a further reminder of its longstanding reputation as a consultancy with good staff relations and a low churn rate. Environmental recruitment company Allen & York sponsored this award.

Other consultancies shortlisted for one of the fifteen awards include Hyder Consulting, Entec, Environ, Bureau Veritas, Conestoga-Rovers, Scott Wilson and WSP. Winners of other awards handed out at the event included construction materials distributor Wolseley, Mitsubishi Electric, architectural firm Green Structures, and Coca-Cola.

Awards criteria

Short-listed candidates for the five project-based awards were assessed by a prestigious panel of judges comprising: Lord Chris Smith, chair of the Environment Agency; Liz Goodwin, chief exeuctive of Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP); Peter Bonfield, director of the Building Research Establishment (BRE); Tom Stephenson, head of applied sciences at Cranfield University; and Peter Stansby, of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

The remaining ten awards were allocated according to the number of online votes received for each short-listed company. Only votes from consultancy clients – those vetted as having a valid work email address – were eligible. The only exception was the award for ‘best company to work for’, which was based on votes received from the short-listed consultancies’ own employees.

Changes to the voting system are being considered for next year’s event, including the option of counting the votes of consultants not voting for their own company (in addition to the customers' votes that we currently count), Carl Myers, new media director at Faversham House Group, told Environment Analyst.

• List of award winners