Mott MacDonald Bentley ‘storm for efficiency’ at Northumbrian Water’s Innovation Festival

Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB) is proud to have supported Northumbrian Water’s (NWG) 2025 Innovation Festival, hosting a design sprint on theme of ‘storming for efficiency’.

Hosted by Northumbrian Water – one of MMB’s key clients - the Innovation festival is an annual event that brings together colleagues, water companies and both industry and government organisations from across the supply chain including. In a truly collaborative setting, the festival aims to tackle challenges which are faced both by the business and wider industry, whilst addressing broader environmental issues that impact the UK water industry and communities which are local to the region.

The theme for this year’s festival was regeneration - exploring how the industry can create both regenerative infrastructure and economies to ensure resilience for the future of the UK water sector and beyond. MMB colleagues based in the North East attended the festival at Newcastle Racecourse, where they led a design sprint, exploring how the water industry can enhance the delivery of efficiency to prepare for the AMP8 sewer overflow spill reduction programme.

The sprint, expertly led by members of MMB and Northumbrian Water, brought over 70 participants across four days of the festival. Throughout the sessions, the team guided participants through a dynamic and collaborative process to develop an innovative solution to the challenge set.

Following the sprint, the team had the opportunity to pitch their findings to the NWG Asset leadership team. They presented a design for a flexible and scalable Geocellular storm return storage system, receiving plaudits from the judges – with locations currently being selected to trial this design.

Learn more about the innovation festival on NWG’s website and check out our post on socials here.