Clifton wastewater treatment project wins award for Sustainable Infrastructure

Stantec, a global leader in sustainable design and engineering services, has won the Sustainable Infrastructure Award at the 2023 Sustainability Consulting Awards for its work on Yorkshire Water’s Integrated Constructed Wetland.

Environment Analyst hosts the Sustainability Consulting Awards which recognise ESG innovation, achievement, and leadership, as well as consultancies who have made significant advances in sustainable transformation. The Sustainable Infrastructure Award is given to the team that has best integrated ESG objectives from the outset of a project and helped clients achieve net zero and sustainability goals.

Clifton Wastewater Treatment Works is a rural treatment plant, owned by Yorkshire Water, that recycles wastewater generated from a small village in South Yorkshire. To meet new water quality objectives, additional infrastructure was needed to reduce nutrient load to the environment.

Stantec identified that the existing treatment site provided the perfect conditions for implementing an integrated constructed wetland: a low energy, nature-based, and more environmentally friendly method of treating wastewater.

The site, about the size of three Olympic swimming pools, was filled with more than 24,000 plants, some to promote ecological conditions for nutrient uptake and others to support biodiversity. Stantec worked with contractors, BarhaleEnpure JV to deliver the project for Yorkshire Water.

Topsoil from the pond excavation was reused for a pollinator nature reserve next to the project to enhance the biodiversity of the surrounding area. Because of the new wetlands, Yorkshire Water’s site is now benefitting from an operational carbon reduction of 79% and an embodied carbon reduction of 50%.

Ross Anderson, Stantec’s Yorkshire region water operations director, commented: “We’re proud that this project in Clifton has won so many industry awards, and it is fantastic to see the scheme gain international recognition. It serves as a positive case study for nature-based solutions in the water sector, and the benefits that can be realised when we combine a great project team, a forward-thinking client, and cutting-edge thinking. Hopefully, this is the first nature-based project of many used for this kind of application.”

Stantec was awarded the industry accolade at a ceremony on 28 June in Chicago. Another Stantec scheme, The Indiana Toll Road (ITR) project, was highly commended in the Transformational Partnership category. Stantec provides the ITR with environmental compliance support and helped perform the toll road’s first ESG materiality assessment and develop its first ESG implementation plan. Stantec helped in benchmarking greenhouse gas emissions for the toll road and in setting ambitious reduction and performance targets. The firm then supported its client to identify and implement pathways which would achieve those targets.

About Stantec
Communities are fundamental. Whether around the corner or across the globe, they provide a foundation, a sense of place and of belonging. That's why at Stantec, we always design with community in mind.

We care about the communities we serve because they're our communities too. This allows us to assess what's needed and connect our expertise, to appreciate nuances and envision what's never been considered, to bring together diverse perspectives so we can collaborate towards a shared success.

We're designers, engineers, scientists, and project managers, innovating together at the intersection of community, creativity, and client relationships. Balancing these priorities results in projects that advance the quality of life in communities across the globe.

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Media Contact
Calum Metcalfe
Stantec UK Media Relations
calum.metcalfe@stantec.com