Utility Week are delighted to announce that the Utility Week Stars Awards will return on 29 June at the Hilton Manchester Deansgate.
Keeping the lights on and the taps running is no mean feat. Every day, the people behind the UK’s utilities go above and beyond the call of duty to deliver these vital services to homes and businesses. Utility Week Stars Awards celebrates the unsung heroes of utilities.
Add these important dates to your diary today:
Table bookings – open now
Call for entries – open now
Entry deadline – Friday 2 March
Award ceremony – Friday 29 June
Register your intention to enter and by telling Utility Week which categories you may be interested in entering, you will earn yourself a weeks’ extension on the final deadline.
Good luck with your entries!
MANCHESTER, UK: Global pipeline infrastructure specialist Aquam Corporation has announced the appointment of Tim Bowen as Managing Director for the UK, Europe and the Middle East. Bowen brings decades of infrastructure project experience to Aquam at a key moment as the company expands its geographical reach with technologies for surveying, maintaining and restoring vital water and gas assets.
Prior to joining Aquam, Bowen served as the Executive Director of Corporate Development for engineering contractor Costain, where he was responsible for cross-sector group strategy including mergers and acquisitions, tendering, corporate social responsibility, health and safety, marketing and innovation.
During his time at Costain, Bowen grew the highways sector revenues from £60 million to over £200 million in just over five years. He also served as an advisor to both HM Treasury and the Department for Transport on several strategic initiatives.
Tim Bowen said, “Urban decision-makers grapple with the challenges of ageing infrastructure on a daily basis. They often face tremendous cost and massive disruption in replacing the water, sewerage and gas pipes that lie under our streets and within our industrial and commercial facilities and our homes.
“Aquam’s global team is dedicated to designing and developing robust sustainable technologies that can be deployed safely, efficiently and with minimum disruption to property and people. I am delighted to join the company at this exciting time.”
A report released by the Consumer Council for Water this month shows the water industry in England and Wales alone lost 3.1 billion litres of drinking water every day in 2016-17. Fully replacing infrastructure on this scale is prohibitively expensive for many cities and utilities and alternative approaches are urgently needed.
Bowen will oversee the firm’s ongoing growth throughout the UK, Europe and the Middle East across its key businesses, including Aquam Pipe Diagnostics (formerly JD7), a global pipeline assessment and inspection specialist; Aquam Pipe Rehabilitation an in-situ pipe cleaning and lining services provider; Nu Flow Technologies, a leader in small-diameter infrastructure lining technologies and Aquam Water Services, a leading UK company that provides critical water usage data and licensed standpipes to utilities.
Dan Squiller, Aquam’s chief executive officer said, “The addition of Tim to the leadership team brings incredible experience and a wide network of potential partners to Aquam further positioning the company to lead the UK water and infrastructure market. His strategic acumen informed by a deep knowledge of infrastructure will be a key asset as Aquam continues to grow, both in the UK and globally.
“His work on major projects including the M4 Hammersmith Flyover Refurbishment, Crossrail and the Thames Tideway Tunnel will be directly applicable to the infra-city infrastructure in which Aquam specialises.”
Congratulations to all the water company winners at the Utility Week Awards on Monday night in London!
Capital Project Management Award
Winner: Anglian Water Services
Health & Safety Initiative of the Year
Winner: Wessex Water
IT Initiative of the Year
Winner: South West Water and Hitachi Consulting
Marketing Initiative of the Year
Winner: Welsh Water
Staff development award
Winner: United Utilities
Supply Chain Excellence
Winner: Anglian Water
Utility of the Year
Winner: Northumbrian Water Group
CLICK HERE to view the full list of awards and winners.
Stonbury were delighted to welcome over 120 delegates to the annual Water Industry Asset and Quality Conference in Burton upon Trent. Now in its sixth consecutive year, the annual conference was well attended by representatives from over 14 Water Companies across the UK and several leading Water Industry consultants.
Service reservoirs and similar clean water assets play a key and crucial role in the storage and supply of drinking water. Suitably this year’s conference took a focused approach, concentrating on matters relative to service reservoirs, including methods for improving bacteriological compliance and DWI Regulation 31.
The conference welcomed excellent speakers from across the industry. Amber Telford, Global Practice Leader for Water Retaining Structures (Mott MacDonald) presented an overview to the New UKWIR Publication on Treated Water Storage Assets, followed by the findings of a collaborative research project by the WRc for Innovative Modelling of Bacteriological Non-Compliance at Service Reservoirs.
The introduction of a digital Q&A session, allowed the conference to be both interactive and engaging. Using smart phone software, guests were able to ask the speaker questions either named or anonymously, which saw audience engagement significantly increased. All questions raised were answered at the end of the presentations, often provoking discussion around the topic area.
James Stonor, Managing Director of Stonbury, addressed Regulation 31, through a presentation, ‘Lessons Learnt from a SR Water Quality Incident’. Opening with a background to the incident, delegates were encouraged to promote an open environment to share and learn from WQ incidents. The presentation was followed with a ‘Water Company Perspective’ by John McGovern, Head of Asset Investment for Northumbrian Water, emphasising the importance of working collaboratively to prevent and overcome such incidents.
In recent years, the conference has developed a platform for industry innovators to showcase their latest products or services. This year saw for the first time, Geocurve – UAV Specialists, demonstrate their capabilities for asset inspection, including inspection and surveying facilities for water towers and roof tops. Other members of the ‘Innovation Lounge’ included; Mason Clark, Polygon, Sensor UK, Gurney Environmental, and BASF.
The water companies concluded the conference, providing an insight into their procedures and innovations surrounding service reservoirs. Dr Clair Dunn, Water Quality and Optimisation Manager of Anglian Water shared an overview for using a risk based approach to improve bacteriological compliance in SRs. Finishing with an update on the progress of the Welsh Water ‘Bacti Predictor’, first introduced over two years ago by Kevin Parry, Principle Statistician, at the previous ‘Bacti Conference’.
The 6th annual Water Industry Asset and Quality Conference has proven a great opportunity for networking and meeting other like-minded individuals, who face similar challenges from across the country.
Martin Vickers – Head of Capital Investment Delivery, South Staffs Water
“Another excellent, well organised, conference attended by a wide spectrum of professionals from across the water industry and country. The presentations were excellent with some very thought-provoking content, which will enable the whole industry to take forward some best practice common themes. To get so many industry professionals in the same room, many with the same issues and problems to address, is a fantastic achievement and testimony to the year on year growth and improvement of this event. It serves to promote and demonstrate continual development of strategies for innovation and everything that’s great about this area of solution delivery.”
As always, guests were invited to finish the conference at an evening dinner, with many opportunities for networking in a less formal environment.
For information or to keep up to date with details of the Water Industry Asset & Quality Conference 2018 please contact laura@stonbury.co.uk
The Society for the Environment has been recognised twice in the inaugural Female CEO Excellence Awards, with an award for CEO, Dr Emma Wilcox, and for the Society’s environmental professional register.
The awards are “truly well-deserved” says Chair of the Society, Professor Will Pope HonFSE CEnv.
CEO Monthly launched the Female CEO Excellence Awards this year in recognition of the fact that the number of Female CEOs is currently at an all-time high around the globe. The reasoning behind the awards is described by CEO Monthly; “We feel that these innovative and hardworking businesswomen deserve to be recognised throughout their desired industry, and what better way to do so by winning one of our respected awards.”
CEO of the Society, Dr Emma Wilcox, picked up the award for ‘UK Professional Certification CEO of the Year’ and the Society was awarded ‘Best Environmental Qualification Authority – UK’.
Emma was appointed CEO of the Society in July 2015, and since joining the organisation has led the development of a new five-year strategy to increase registrations and the profile for Chartered Environmentalists and Registered Environmental Technicians. Emma’s work to date caught the eye of the judging panel, who ranked Emma above her peers.
The organisations managed by female CEOs were also able to showcase themselves by winning an award. The Society was successful, and collected the award for ‘Best Environmental Qualification Authority – UK’.
Chair of the Society, Professor Will Pope HonFSE CEnv, said; “It’s very pleasing to see this truly well-deserved recognition both for Emma as our CEO, and for the Society’s services as the custodian of the Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) and Registered Environmental Technician (REnvTech) registers – the formal accreditation and recognition of quality for environmental professionals.
That these prestigious awards come to our relatively young Society – at a point when we have now registered over 9,000 environmental professionals in total since gaining our Royal Charter in 2004 – is a great credit to Emma and the teams involved, both in the Society and in our 24 Constituent Bodies. I look forward to the continuing development of the Society as it further grows its register, supports its registrants and its Constituent Bodies, as well as becoming ever more influential when providing a voice for registrants who are dedicated to environmental improvement and sustainability across sectors”.
CEO Monthly highlight that all of the awards are “based solely on merit, and not based on the number of votes received. We have a highly experienced research and judging panel who have ensured that only the very best are rewarded in this programme.”
To discover more about the work of the Society, please visit www.socenv.org.uk.
Northumbrian Water Group has scooped a prestigious award for the innovative way it engages with and shapes the working environment for its employees.
The company employs more than 3,000 people, providing water and sewerage services as Northumbrian Water in the North East, and supplying customers’ water as Essex & Suffolk Water in the South East.
At the 2017 Engage Awards, the UK’s only customer and employee engagement awards programme, Northumbrian Water Group won “Best Use of Innovation in Employee Engagement”, having been shortlisted alongside companies including Vodafone, Marks & Spencer and Thomson Reuter.
The award was presented at a glittering ceremony at London’s Westminster Bridge Park Plaza.
It recognised a programme of activity to create a Great Place to Work (GPTW) for the company’s people, which included refreshing and refocussing its employee experience model. This programme was presented and discussed at 63 employee events by Chief Executive Heidi Mottram and the feedback received, along with the employee survey results, was used to shape local GPTW action plans.
The key elements of the GPTW programme ensures manager responsibility for the experience of their people and a local approach to engagement, with best practice being shared across the business by an Engagement Leaders Forum.
The programme includes support for employees and managers to develop resilience and mental wellbeing, as well as leadership development in emotional intelligence.
Alison Corner, Employee Engagement Manager at Northumbrian Water Group, said: “The way people feel about the place they work and the job they do is really important. We want everyone to come to work every day and enjoy what they do and have a great experience, which in turn will ensure our customers receive an unrivalled customer experience.
“All of our 3,000-plus people are different and do a broad range of roles, from mobile workers responding to burst water pipes to administrators, laboratory technicians and engineers and we work really hard to make sure everything we do at Northumbrian Water creates a great place to work for everyone.
“We’re delighted to have been recognised in this way, especially as we were up against some much larger well-known companies and it’s great to be able to take the award back for the whole business as everyone has had a part to play in achieving this.”