Brownfield Briefing Awards 2014

June 30, 2014 - PRLog -- Two new categories have been added to the annual Brownfield Briefing Awards in its tenth anniversary year - Best Laboratory Innovation and Best Regeneration involving Brownfield.

The awards, held on 23 October at the five star Grange Tower Hill Hotel, attracts upwards of 350 of the industry’s leading players. The closing date for entries is 18 August.

The criteria for the Laboratory Innovation award includes a genuine breakthrough in procedures and/or processes; innovation to achieve new data and or information; efficiencies and cost-effectiveness; and best integration of field work.

Regeneration which took a hit in the downturn, is making somewhat of a comeback this year. Entries should demonstrate economic, social and community benefits over the wider area; efficient use of funds; effective use of available space; respect for the integrity of the area and demonstrate environmental sustainability.

Brownfield Briefing Awards 2014

1. Best use of a combination of remediation techniques

2. Best in-situ treatment

3. Best Conceptual Design

4. Best scoping or operation of a site investigation

5. Best laboratory innovation (new 2014)

6. Best project closure/verification process

7. Best public participation (including use of visualisation)

8. Best re-use of materials

9. Best scientific (or verification) advancement

10. Best building or redevelopment on a brownfield site

11. Best regeneration involving brownfield (new 2014)

12. Best young brownfield professional

Three new judges have been added to the panel - Chris Brown from Igloo, recognised as one of the leading sustainable urban regeneration funders in the UK. One of the previous winners of the Best Young Brownfield Professional award - Naomi Regan of National Grid whose career was helped by winning the award, along with David Rudland, Contaminated Land Officer at Swindon Borough Council. David previously worked in an environmental consultancy and he also chairs the Land Quality working group of Environmental Protection UK.

Mike Summersgill, SEnSe Associates and president elect of CIWEM is chair of the judging panel and accompanied by fellow judges Jonathan Atkinson of the Environment Agency, Richard Boyle of the Homes & Communities Agency, Stephan Jefferis of Environmental Geotechnics and visiting Professor at the University of Oxford and Clive Boyle of CRB Environmental.

There is also an addition to the Best Public Participation award with the inclusion of visualisation. Well-presented visuals, be they in 2D or 3D are increasingly important given the complexity of projects, master-plans and applications and it is vital that stakeholders including councillors and committee members who are passing planning applications, understand the context and implications of their decision making. A lot of painstaking work goes into these visuals which goes largely unrecognised.