The 20^th annual Brownfield Awards, held on 17 October 2024 at the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel in Manchester, brought together industry leaders to celebrate excellence in brownfield regeneration. WSP had its best night ever at this event, winning four awards and receiving one highly commended recognition.

Among the key wins:

• Best Biodiversity Enhancement on a Brownfield Project for the restoration of the Kinneil Kerse Landfill in Bo’ness, Scotland, delivered in partnership with Falkirk Council, led by Tony Brown. 
• Best Research or Application in the Advancement of Science, Technology or Digital Innovation for the Dermal Bioavailability of PAH in Soil project, a ground-breaking academic research effort that also secured the prestigious Judges’ Award, led by Russell Thomas and Tatiana Cocerva. 

WSP UK also made its mark at the Women in Green Business Awards 2024, held in London on 3 October. This event celebrates the achievements of women driving sustainability across the UK economy and the companies leading the charge for gender equality in the green sector.

• Afshan Rasheed won Mentor of the Year for her leadership in supporting the careers of both women and men at WSP, as well as her work with apprentices and initiatives for new mums returning to the workplace.
• Martha Smith was Highly Commended in the Apprentice of the Year category, recognising her contributions to WSP’s mission in sustainability and green business.

These achievements highlight WSP’s dedication to fostering diversity, equity and inclusion alongside its expertise in tackling the environmental challenges of today.

On 26 September 2024, we attended the IChemE Annual Dinner Awards at the Marcliffe Hotel. Azzam Younes, Associate Director in the Earth and Environment Health and Safety team, was honoured and thrilled to receive the ‘Best Technical Presentation of the Year Award 2024’ for his paper titled Hydrogen incidents and lessons learned.

Azzam’s award-winning paper explored three hydrogen-related incidents, sharing valuable lessons learned and underscoring hydrogen’s essential role in the future energy mix—from fuelling cars, trains, and ships to generating electricity and heating buildings. His webinar on the topic, attended by over 537 IChemE members, further supported the findings of his research.