Sustainability Initiatives in Practice?
Recently, I have been on the periphery of some environmental work by RPS and I thought it may be vaguely interesting for the blog.
A9 Upgrades – Proof that the sun does shine in Scotland
As part of highway improvement works north of Perth, a Joint Venture of Wills Bros/John Paul is upgrading a 7.5km section of the A9 between Kincraig and Dalraddy. The scheme passes through the Cairngorms National Park, Alvie SSSI (site of specific scientific interest) and a tributary of the River Spey SAC (special area of conservation).
The project has required the management of numerous protected habitats and species during the construction schedule and RPS has provided Environmental Clerk of Works (ECoW) services.
My involvement has been compiling some reports but I thought it was interesting how much effort was expended on a relatively small contract (value £35m). The ecological highlights of the project included:
- Translocation of some 45 Hairy Wood Ant nests in collaboration with the Cairngorm National Park Authority. Hairy Wood Ants are included on the Scottish Biodiversity List as a priority species for conservation. They are a key stone species of woodland ecosystems and are threatened through habitat loss.
- Sensitively felling of mature Scot’s pine forestry containing Red Squirrels in consultation with Scottish National Heritage. Red Squirrels are protected both under UK and European legislation.
- Installation and monitoring of Otter fencing surrounding the development to protect this qualifying species of the adjacent River Spey SAC.
RPS ECoW services involved monitoring of compliance with all relevant environmental documents. In short, RPS was the contractor’s own environmental police. The environmental element of the project was considered a great success. The successful translocation of the Hairy Wood Ants was praised by the National Park Authority and the sensitive removal of forestry ensured a negligible impact to the local Red Squirrels population. Whilst the Otter fencing monitoring gave confidence to SNH that the development caused no likely significant effect to the nearby SAC.
From my cynical perspective it is interesting to note that the effort expended in aid of the environment has been rewarded. RPS site team have received high praise resulting in a score of 9/10 (“exceptional”) for environmental protection under the Considerate Contractor Scheme. The benefit of the full time environmental presence was recognised by the stakeholders. They had confidence that regulations were being followed; the site achieved a very high score for “Protection to the Environment” in the Considerate Contractors audit which rated the site as “Excellent”.
Maybe some of the environmental sustainability initiatives do work?
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
Rich, good to see a project actively engaging with environmental sustainability issues rather than just seeing it as a profit sucking pain in the proverbial! Do you think that because its a small project there has been more attention given to these issues as it would be harder for them to be sidelined then it would be with a large project? Or are the Scots just very keen on their squirrels?
In all fairness Fred I normally see the environmental sustainability initiatives as said pain but in this case the local area and (by default the promoter) recognise the importance of the environment in the area.
I have to ask if you think that because this is a government scheme it has placed enivronmental sustainability higher? In my experience here the majority of the sustainability initiatives social and environmental seem to be focussed on government projects. I would be interested in your thoughts?
Doug
The cynic in me would wholeheartedly agree. Although, I am probably being unfair as in this part of the country everyone is aware of the importance of the Cairngorms
I agree with Rich’s point. The area is a huge tourist attraction and the A9 is an essential route in to Inverness and further “beyond the wall”. The environment and the wildlife is part of the attraction of the area and looking after it here is to look after the future of the tourist attraction.
The Forrestry Commission is always looking at ways to preserve and improve the ecology and environmental sustainability of the area, I think any development that is conducted in or around the National Park will be under immense scrutiny.
I think this is why we have these areas though – controversially, should such a big emphasis be put on preservation of small ambiguous creatures in city centres or industrial sites? One it is difficult and two it is expensive. If you want the birds and bees, move to the countryside. If you want grade A offices and efficient and cheap transport, sacrifices will have to be made – but lip service is still paid! Thoughts?
Is it sustainability or environmental protection – or are they the same thing?
I agree with Chris, given how essential the great outdoors is to that part of Scotland there is no way that a development scheme would get the go-ahead without such significant environmental protection schemes.
Hi Rich,
With your permission I intend to use this as a ‘case study’ on the courses to prompt discussion on environmental issues and whether there is a real appetite for environmental protection or, as pointed out, it depends on ‘who, what and were’ the project is.
I was involved in protecting a ‘tuft’ of grass in that area some time (years) ago, so this is not a new debate, and have things moved on?
James
Environment is one of the strands within sustainable development (social and economic being the others). The civils must write an ICE essay as part of our CPR and hence I thought this was vaguely interesting. Neil provided us a practice essay a few months ago and forms this info would have been quite a good case study to bulk out an essay.
Do you mech boys have the same?
John
More than happy for this to be used as an example. I will try to dig out some useful/more info.
TBH I agree with the sentiment expressed by Chris and James. This is a public finance funded project in a particularly sensitive environmental area hence the expended effort.