Medium Consultancy of the Year

On 22^nd June, colleagues Jacob Dew and Kenneth Agyekum-Kwatiah, attended the 2022 CIEEM Awards Ceremony. We were shortlisted in the Medium Consultancy category, having submitted out application back in February.

We are extremely pleased to have been awarded Medium Consultancy of the Year!

This is a prestigious award recognising our fantastic work over the year. Our application showcased our delivery of high-quality practical solutions, our work towards reducing our carbon footprint and how we promote the industry.

Speaking about the award, Tom Grayling our Director of Monitoring and Natural Capital said ‘‘It’s not the winning that counts, it’s the taking part’ is what we honestly thought as we decided to take our chances at this award. With absolutely no expectations I was blown away that we won. It’s so easy in the fog of our busy lives to achieve and move on, barely celebrating the wins, but not this time! This acknowledgement was a fantastic moment for us to pause, reflect and say thank you to our people for their continued drive towards the common goal of protecting and enhancing our environment, but also making FiveRivers a company we are be proud of. Thank you to everyone, past and present.’

Within our submission we included examples of works we have delivered, these included Bringing back the Bulbourne and European eel trap and transport. An example of our practical delivery well evidenced is Bringing back the Bulbourne, click here to see a video detailing the scheme. We worked with site won materials only to restore natural processes and increase diversity of habitat and species. Not reliant on imported materials, we dramatically transformed the river. We have a culture of adding environmental value, if the people and plant are on site, with abundant site won materials, we ask can we do more? This is a scheme that allowed us flexibility to deliver on our ethos. The scheme was monitored to evaluate habitat diversity and public perception by the Environment Agency and Queen Mary University of London and the results published (Appendix A). In addition, macroinvertebrate community was monitored by The River Fly Partnership. Monitoring demonstrated that our delivery increased physical habitat and vegetation complexity, and improvement in the number and range of river fly taxa in the Bulbourne post restoration.

European eel are critically endangered, we have been working with the water industry to mitigate historic impacts from water abstraction. Our teams have designed and delivered population assessments and eel translocations for populations landlocked within reservoirs. We worked with our clients and the regulator to develop project scope for eDNA sampling to prioritise effort and trialed a range of techniques. In total, in 2021, we caught and translocated 178 mature European eel, now able to contribute to the breeding population and the recovery of the species.

Waste-water treatment uses as much energy globally as the entire shipping sector, a shocking statistic, but one we are proud to be contributing to its reduction. We design and build constructed wetlands that reduce operational energy consumption by treating water the natural way using macrophytes to filter Nitrates and Phosphates and settle sediment. The sites provide essential habitat for species, sequestration of carbon, reduce carbon emissions from water treatment and reduce the need for construction of new infrastructure. The benefits continue downstream, improving water quality and reducing the impacts of diffuse pollution on our estuary and marine environment.