Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB) were presented with four awards – three wins and a highly commended – at the annual ICE West Midlands gala; an event that celebrates all aspects of civil engineering, projects, people and ground-breaking research across the Midlands region. Cinderford Wetlands – Winner – Team Achievement award MMB have delivered a biodiversity improvement scheme for Severn Trent Water in Cinderford, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. Significant project risks were managed through collaboration with stakeholders at the Environment Agency, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and Forestry England. These risks included a coal mining legacy, anecdotal evidence of contamination, high groundwater, difficult access and great crested newts. A key success from Cinderford was the identification of skill sets and areas of expertise that were needed early on, resulting in the appropriate people joining the multi-disciplinary project team. Frances Stephens (MMB Civil Engineer) – Winner – STEM Ambassador award Frances impressed the judges with her consistent support of STEM activities throughout this year, running a range of activities on behalf of the ICE and Mott MacDonald Bentley. This has included mentoring Year 9 students for the Industrial Cadets Bronze Award. Frances is also heavily involved with Girl Guiding and Early Career Professionals and she delivered a speech at Loughborough University to students about her journey to professional chartership. Frances has dedicated her time and effort into inspiring the next generation of civil engineers and has improved the education outreach of the ICE. Phosphorus removal programme – Winner – Innovation award As part of AMP7, Severn Trent Water have placed a focus on water quality schemes, especially focusing on the reduction of phosphorus (P) released into water courses to limit the risk of eutrophication. The P removal programme has used a dedicated delivery team across multiple MMB frameworks to manage the supply chain, and implement a standardised, digitally innovative design approach using Moata Intelligent Content (MIC). Throughout all MMB regions, 2,970 hours and £138,000 have been saved so far due to the implementation of MIC models into projects. Uttoxeter Water Treatment Works – Highly Commended – Medium Project award An impressive team achievement led by MMB and Severn Trent Water has provided new wastewater treatment facilities at Uttoxeter, ensuring compliance with a major tightening in discharge consent and contributing to Severn Trent’s commitment to improve the environment and ensure capacity for population growth. The inclusion of innovative processes including Enhanced Biological Phosphate Removal and a Hybrid Activated Sludge Unit has reduced infrastructure requirement and chemical usage resulting in a sustainably driven solution with a low carbon footprint. The adoption of MMC (Modern Methods of Construction) principles allowed off-site pre-fabrication of equipment to run parallel with on-site activities reducing installation periods and giving Severn Trent time to optimise the process before the new consent date. This AMP7 early obligation scheme is an excellent demonstration of how improvement of the environment can be combined with sustainable provision for future population growth. Don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up to date with all the latest from across the business.

JN Bentley has received a silver medal sustainability rating from EcoVadis after completing their sustainability management assessment. This places JN Bentley in the top 25% percentile rankings with a silver medal in recognition of sustainability achievements. EcoVadis is the world’s largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings, creating a global network of more than 90,000+ rated companies. Their assessment evaluates businesses on their sustainability practices, scoring their commitments and performance against four key areas: environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement. As part of the assessment, EcoVadis also provide participating organisations with an action plan, detailing steps that can be taken to drive improvement in lower scoring areas. Our sustainability approach Our approach is underpinned by six pillars of sustainability. These set out a guide for our activities and commitments to ensure we operate sustainably, and we deliver sustainable outcomes in our projects. Enhance our environment Preserve resources Carbon reduction Procurement with purpose Supporting society People In achieving a silver medal rating, we have successfully demonstrated our commitment to going beyond compliance to protect the environment, putting our people first, operating ethically and with integrity and sustainable procurement. This is evidenced by our environmental management commitment, ‘to protect the environment and actively promote the improvement of our working areas’, our aim to deliver low carbon solutions, the promotion of an inclusive business culture and our ‘Procure with Purpose’ strategy; which showcase our approach to sustainability management at organisation level. “Receiving a silver medal from EcoVadis for our sustainability achievements is a fantastic result and testament to the great work the business and our teams are doing to drive the sustainability agenda, including our commitment to be net zero by 2040 and achievement of carbon neutral status earlier this year. “The assessment has also provided valuable insight into areas where we can improve our performance which we have been able to share with our Clients, including Rolls Royce and Severn Trent.” Rebecca Mann, Sustainability Lead (JN Bentley). Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitterto stay up to date with the latest news from around the business.

JN Bentley has been appointed to a major new civil engineering contract with the Canal & River Trust. As part of an arrangement lasting up to ten years, JN Bentley will deliver complex works across the north of the Trust’s network of historic waterways and assets. The only contractor appointed to work on complex assets on the north of the Trust’s network, the framework will see JN Bentley deliver significant repair and restoration projects at reservoirs, embankments, culverts, tunnels and aqueducts. The arrangement will also mean JN Bentley is on hand to respond to instances of flooding or canal breaches. The Canal & River Trust cares for and brings to life 2,000 miles of canals and river navigations across England & Wales; this framework represents one of the largest waterway engineering contracts they have ever awarded, with a potential total value of £500m. The contract has been awarded off the back of a thorough tender process during which JN Bentley demonstrated its ability to deliver projects safely, efficiently, and sustainably - evidenced through its experience working with the likes of the Environment Agency and multiple clients across the regulated water sector. Ian Bester, JN Bentley operations director, said: “We are delighted to be appointed to this new framework with the Canal & River Trust – an important new client for us and one that provides a fantastic opportunity to be involved with preserving and enhancing the industrial and natural heritage of the country. “Securing the framework will allow us to bring our transferrable skills developed from 50 years of experience in the water and environment sectors. We’ll focus on collaborating with the Trust and their partners to deliver safe, sustainable, high quality and innovative solutions for users of waterways across the UK. “We look forward to forging a long-term relationship together and helping Canal & River Trust continue to make life better by water.” This will be the first time JN Bentley and the Canal & River Trust have worked together, and follows soon after JN Bentley’s appointment to frameworks with another new client, Associated British Ports, announced earlier this year. Does JN Bentley sound like somewhere you’d like to come and build your career? We have a range of current vacancies – check them out on our careers pages.

JBA Bentley has been named runner-up in the Contractor of the Year category at the prestigious NEC Martin Barnes Awards 2022. The awards, concluding the annual NEC conference in London, celebrate great work carried out by individuals, teams and projects from right across the globe. The award recognises JBA Bentley’s delivery of the Great Yarmouth Flood Defence ‘Epoch 2’ scheme – one of the largest the company has ever delivered with the Environment Agency. The project has seen major work undertaken on the quayside in Great Yarmouth to renovate and replace flood defences that provide flood protection to 4,500 homes and businesses. A 70% reduction in carbon has been achieved on the scheme, through careful planning, innovative design, material reuse and a local supply chain. JBA Bentley director, Ian Bester, commented, “This is a fantastic achievement for a great project, made all the more pleasing in that the award entry was first initiated by our client’s PM. “The Great Yarmouth scheme is great showcase for the NEC - administered in the spirit of mutual trust and cooperation, no contractual escalations with both parties happy with the project outcome. “Well done to everyone involved.” NEC judge, Shy Jackson, said, “All the entries were of a very high standard and there was a wide range of project types from all over the world, including some where the parties used NEC for the first time…Well done to everyone who has taken part and has provided good examples of NEC in practice.” Congratulations to all the winners on the evening. Pictured: JBA Bentley contracts manager Glenn Harvey (right) with John Welch, NEC Users' Group Chair and Deputy Director Construction at CCS. The award is the latest in a growing list for JBA Bentley and Great Yarmouth – including Environment and Sustainability Initiative of the Year at last year’s British Construction Industry Awards. Read more about JBA Bentley and its focus on low carbon solutions on the JBA Bentley website.

A team of Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB) colleagues took part in the Engineering Education Scheme Wales (EESW) Project again this year, partnering with 6th Form students to set them a real life engineering design task. Aimed at promoting STEM, the EESW project sees engineering businesses partner with a team of 6th Form students from local schools and colleges to set them a project brief related to a real problem facing the company. During the project, students research and design a solution to produce a final proposal, model or working prototype. Students then present their designs to a panel of assessors for a chance to win one of four awards for: Best Use of STEM, Best Written Proposal, Best Application of Engineering and Technology and Best Use of Mechanical Engineering Principles. MMB have been involved in the EESW project since 2016. This year, our team comprising of Prys Roberts, Prithula Roy Choudhury and Evan Lewis, partnered with two teams of 6th Form students from Ysgol Dyffryn Conwy and set them a project brief to design sustainable site cabins. Evan Lewis, one of MMB’s Civil Engineers supporting the project said: “The students were asked to develop methods of making an often repeated design such as the installation of a site set up more sustainable, an incentive aligned with the UKs move to carbon zero. This reinforced the critical role engineers have to play in the battle against climate change and illustrated an opportunity for how they might play their small part.” After an initial presentation at the school to set the brief, the students set out to investigate the problem and come up with different solutions – with the MMB team on hand to answer any queries throughout. Both student teams delivered great solutions by investigating the existing technology, coming up with innovative solutions and considering a wide range of impacts. Their efforts saw each receive an award – one for Best Use of STEM for Sustainability and the Environment and the other for Best Overall Written Report – aswell as a cash prize of £500, awarded at the EESW presentation day earlier this year. MMB’s involvement in the EESW project is not only a chance to promote STEM but provides a platform to showcase careers in engineering and the important role of engineers. Pictured: MMB at a previous STEM event “Through STEM activities, young people are educated on the important role engineers play in facilitating a healthy society whether being through the construction of critical infrastructure, the supply of clean drinking water or the treatment of waste. They also get to understand the potentially rewarding nature of the career through exposure to problem solving activities and seeing their designs evolve from an idea into being.” (Evan Lewis, Civil Engineer, MMB). Prys Roberts (Project Lead), part of the MMB team supporting the project said: “Being involved in STEM schemes, such as EESW, allows us to provide opportunities to the generation of future engineers to see a glimpse of what we do on a day-to-day. “Getting the students involved in a project to tackle and explore real issues is more engaging and gives a different perspective from sitting in a classroom, which we hope will ignite an interest in STEM subjects.” - Find out more about the EESW project here. Remember to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up to date with the latest news from around the business.

At JN Bentley, we know our people are our most valuable asset, so are committed to investing in their potential to help them learn, grow and excel. Investing in our workforce and having a strong development plan is fundamental to the continued success of the business; the huge variety of benefits for both company and employee are worth the investment. Improvement Workforce development contributes to an improvement in performance, safety, efficiency and profitability, allowing us to deliver an improved quality of service to our clients. Additionally, by enabling people to be better at their jobs, we’re improving worker engagement, retention and satisfaction. On an individual level, the opportunity to learn and develop new skills and accredit personal knowledge leads to increased self-esteem and motivation, helping good employees to grow into great leaders. Professional accreditation also means that our people are able to gain a recognised qualification that is benchmarked against national performance standards of work-based, on-the-job learning. Investment in our frontline workforce We continue to invest in our frontline workforce - site personnel such as lead hands, operatives and foremen. With a weekly resource of over 470 employees, it’s important that we demonstrate our commitment to our people and their learning and development. Our training team and resource managers identify areas of operation that would benefit from increased investment and in the past 24 months we have delivered the following accredited development programmes with our site personnel: 60 behavioural safety coaches for front-line supervisors 350 Level 2 NVQ in plant and lifting operations for our operators 80 Level 3 NVQ in site supervision for our frontline supervisors 35 Level 4 NVQ in lifting operations 48 Level 5 NVQ diplomas in lifting operations for our site managers Image: Behavioural safety training By investing in employees at all levels, we are demonstrating care in their professional growth and potential to progress to senior positions within the company, or, just as importantly, develop their own knowledge to allow them deliver more successful outcomes. This feeds into a positive culture of belonging, motivation and productivity across all levels and ultimately, happy people that enjoy coming to work. - Does JN Bentley sound like somewhere you could build your career? We have opportunities across the country – check out our careers pages for details.

JN Bentley have been appointed to 48 lots on PAGABO’s new £1.56bn civils and infrastructure framework, covering value bands £500k to £30m+ and locations in the North, Midlands, South-West and Wales. The framework will allow local authorities and public sector organisations to procure vital infrastructure projects across the UK; our inclusion will give us the opportunity to deliver social outcomes across core sectors including water and wastewater, Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCRM), gas, nuclear, clean energy, air transport and other infrastructure. This appointment follows JN Bentley’s recent success at securing a place on two new frameworks with Associated British Ports (ABP), worth up to £415m, delivering design and construction work across 21 ports in the UK. Jonny Burton, Director at JN Bentley, commented: “We are pleased to be named as one of 48 companies who have been awarded a place on PAGABO’s new civils and infrastructure framework. “This provides us with a great opportunity to collaborate with other leading contractors to deliver high quality and vital infrastructure, expanding our expert knowledge and experience across a range of sectors and demonstrating our commitment to social value and innovation.” Remember to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up to date with the latest news from around the business.

JBA Bentley is proud to join the line up of exhibitors at the Flood & Coast Conference and Exhibition at the Telford International Centre on 7-9th June 2022. JBA Bentley – the integrated design and build offering - brings together JBA’s vast and highly respected in-house expertise for developing sustainable low carbon solutions, with JN Bentley’s safe, trusted, responsible, and efficient delivery. Flood & Coast is a unique event attracting exhibitors, speakers and visitors from around the world to discuss and debate the impacts of climate change on flood and coastal erosion risk management. Produced by one of JBA Bentley’s key clients – the Environment Agency – in partnership with CIWEM, the event brings together industry professionals to discuss innovative ways of working together and with the communities most affected by flooding and coastal erosion. On stand B8, JBA Bentley will be showcasing what it brings to the flood and coastal erosion risk management sector. We’ll demonstrate how our fully integrated design and build offering provides the EA, other risk Management authorities and the community with low carbon solutions that are delivered in a safe and efficient way. Also on the stand will be colleagues from parent company JBA Consulting. Come say hello – we’d love to meet! - You can learn all about JBA Bentley here.

Anglian Water’s Strategic Pipeline Alliance, along with their partners including Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB), were announced as a finalist in the Digital Transformation category at the Utility Week Awards, held at Grosvenor Hotel in Mayfair. The event was attended by UK water companies and other industry-leading utilities companies, with Anglian Water being announced as the winner of the flagship ‘Utility of the Year’ award. MMB and the other Alliance Partners represented the Strategic Pipeline Alliance (SPA), one of the largest strategic water infrastructure projects in the UK. Taking a forward thinking and innovative approach, the ambitious project will create hundreds of kilometres of interconnecting mains and associated pumping equipment. The aim is to ensure the East Anglian region is resilient to the risk of drought by securing water supplies for future generations. The purpose of the Digital Transformation award is to recognise ‘outstanding leadership, ambition and success among utilities in embracing digital opportunities to transform their businesses and deliver better outcomes for customers.’ The Strategic Pipeline Alliance’s submission focused on the use of Geospatial Digital Solutions (GIS) at the heart of all decision making, specifically showcasing how SPA is using the Project 13 Principles to deliver better outcomes. Project 13 is an industry-led initiative that supports an enterprise led approach to the delivery of the UK’s national infrastructure programme. Built on five core principles, of which digital transformation is one, the approach prioritises customers and focuses on long-term social and economic value. GIS is a key component in the development of a Digital Twin for SPA, part of Anglian Water’s wider digital transformation plans. The Digital Twin will assist with asset management and connectivity, unlocking value by enabling improved insights that support better decisions. The Alliance’s use of GIS and Land Management technology (both powered by Moata) offers an innovative way of approaching land access for surveys, improving customer and client relationships. On the SPA project, so far over 10,000 surveys have been facilitated. Following the event, MMB’s Jon Gray, Design Manager working on the SPA project, commented: “We were very pleased to receive this high-level recognition at one of the utility industry’s biggest awards evenings. Our digital transformation strategy forms a core part of the successful delivery of SPA, showcasing the potential of this technology to the wider sector and delivering better outcomes for Anglian Water’s customers. Well done to all involved in the project.” Read more about our work on SPA in our latest Annual Review. Don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up to date with the latest news from around the business.

JN Bentley has been appointed to two new frameworks with Associated British Ports (ABP). ABP’s five-year industrial building framework could be worth up to a total of £415m and covers design and building work at their 21 ports across the country. 11 partners have been appointed to five regional lots, with JN Bentley the only partner to be appointed to each. JN Bentley has also secured a place on ABP’s minor civils framework to deliver projects at their four ports on the Humber at Hull, Grimsby, Immingham, and Goole. One of the UK’s leading port operators, ABP’s network of ports around Britain offers marine, road and rail access to domestic and international markets. They handle around one-quarter of the nation's seaborne trade and contribute £7.5 billion to the economy every year. Securing the frameworks represents a move into a new sector for JN Bentley, to which it can bring fifty years of engineering and construction experience in a variety of fields including industrial building, water and highways. Ian Bester, JN Bentley director, said, “We are delighted to secure places on these two important frameworks with ABP. The frameworks give us opportunity to demonstrate the value we add as an experienced contractor with skills and knowledge directly transferable from other sectors such as water. “We look forward to supporting the significant contribution that ABP make to the UK and playing our part in helping Keep Britain Trading. We are excited to get going and look forward to forging a long-term successful relationship together.” Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to keep up-to-date with the latest news from JN Bentley.