Environment Analyst Sustainability Awards: Five Short-Listed Associate Entries

May 31, 2024 /3BL/ - Environment Analyst's Annual Sustainability Delivery Awards recognize ESG innovation, achievement and leadership, and celebrate those organizations who have made significant advances in progressing towards a sustainable transformation and achieving climate and net zero goals. As an Alliance we have five short-listed entries:

• Transformative Partnerships: Antea Group USA, BIER and HPRC Leading the Way in Sustainability through Collective Action
• Digital Innovation: denxpert, HPC and Inogen Alliance, ESG Pre-Screening Tool
• Creating Resilient & Sustainable Communities: Tonkin + Taylor and WSP, Innovative Indigenous Partnership
• Transportation Project of the Year: Tonkin + Taylor and WSP, Paving the Path to a Sustainable Future
• Sustainability Impact Award: Tonkin + Taylor, Our Journey to Inspiring Sustainable Futures

Find the full shortlisted entries here.

Antea Group USA: Transformative Partnerships with HPRC and BIER Consortiums

Two exemplary partnerships, the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER) and the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council (HPRC), have been making substantial and sustained contributions to environmental sustainability through collective action with Antea Group at the helm as founding facilitator and leader of both.

Founded in 2006, the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER) is a technical coalition of leading global beverage companies working together to bring about positive environmental change in the sector and inform public policy through engagement with key stakeholders and work focused on business-relevant environmental dimensions including water, energy & climate, beverage container recycling, sustainable agriculture, and eco-system services. Facilitated by Antea Group, BIER is unique in its collaborative approach of accelerating the process of analysis to the development of sustainable solutions through beverage industry-specific data collection, methodologies, standard setting, and best practice sharing.

Current BIER members include:

Founded in 2010, and facilitated by Antea Group since its founding, the Healthcare Plastic Recycling Council (HPRC) is a private, technical consortium of industry peers across the manufacturing, healthcare, and recycling industries seeking to improve the recyclability of plastic products and packaging within healthcare. HPRC is unique in its focus on the identification of plastics recycling barriers and solution development along the entire value chain and seeks to effect plastics recycling from healthcare product design and manufacturing through product use, disposal and recycle. Through this collaborative value-chain approach, we bring the right organizations to the table to most effectively develop solutions to an ever-growing and complex waste management issue. HPRC is active across the United States and Europe working with key stakeholders, identifying opportunities for collaboration and participating in industry events and forums.

Current HPRC members include:

denxpert, HPC AG and Inogen Alliance: Digital Innovation with the ESG Pre Screening Tool

The category of Digital Innovation recognizes products and services accelerating ESG goals through digital innovation. This joint submission is for the ESG Pre Screening Tool which launched in the fall of 2023. The content of the tool was created with the expertise of HPC AG and brought to life through the digital solutions developed by denxpert. This tool has been strategically marketed globally through Inogen Alliance, and can be found on our global resources page here.

The ESG Pre Screening Tool can support companies from all sectors and sizes in a rapid way in achieving their environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals. By improving the accessibility, transparency, and comparability of ESG efforts, it enables a quick overview or “snapshot” of associated ESG risks and areas for improvement. Our vision is to drive positive change in companies by promoting responsible business and sustainable practices among industry peers. The tool is free and available for anyone globally. Companies who submit the questionnaire automatically receive within minutes a free snapshot of their ESG performance indicating risks and opportunity areas including recommendations for improvement via email. The tool follows our global privacy policies so companies can be sure of the secure data handling.

We have been able to evaluate the ESG performance of at least 100 companies, in over 33 countries around the world, with positive user feedback.

Tonkin + Taylor and WSP: Innovative Indigenous Partnership with the Mt Messenger Alliance and the Ngāti Tama Iwi (tribe) New Zealand 

Ngāti Tama is an Iwi (Indigenous Māori tribe) in Taranaki, Aotearoa / New Zealand. In the 1860’s, wars with British colonists resulted in loss of life and land for the Iwi. This was settled as a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi under the Ngāti Tama Claims Settlement Act 2003 (TRoNT).

TRoNT was approached by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) in 2016, to re-route the Te Ara O Te Ata/ Mt Messenger Bypass through land which Ngāti Tama owned or exercised mana whenua (authority and responsibility for their tribal area) over. This was the first time the Crown had sought to acquire land which had so recently been returned to an Iwi. The Mt Messenger Alliance was formed, to provide sustainability and engineering capabilities, and to support our client to have full participation of Ngāti Tama, where the Iwi is highly involved at all levels of the project.

This project provides a resilient 6 km section of highway, and will deliver lasting social benefits and environmental justice. The new road will provide better access for local communities to hospital, emergency services, schooling, supporting the sustainability and growth of local businesses. Providing environmental justice for Ngāti Tama included an exchange of land, a payment to mitigate the cultural impact of the project, and an environmental restoration and pest management program which connects to the program Ngāti Tama has been running for several years on adjacent land.

The venture has created employment for Ngāti Tama members, and locals particularly in pest management, seed collection, plant propagation, restoration planting, construction, and the design of tunnel portal features. The inclusion of cultural monitoring in TAoTA is another critical aspect of the project. A team of Ngāti Tama kaitiaki (cultural guardians) are employed by the Alliance to monitor the project’s work. This is supported by the Ngāti Tama cultural advisory group, Te Rōpū Tiaki, that oversees cultural monitoring to ensure environmental changes align with cultural values, and that safe cultural practices for all workers onsite are followed.

T+T and WSP, alongside the Mt Messenger Alliance have supported the creation of Te Tāmoremorenui, and are working with one of these iwi’s training institute through the Iwi Horticulture Lead for TAoTA. This partnership aims to develop a horticulture qualification that embraces Māori practice and values with on-site learning and academic study. T+T also created a $30,000 scholarship for a Ngāti Tama student to undertake a Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Biodiversity, with a summer internship working on the TAoTA project.

Tonkin + Taylor and WSP: Transportation Project of the Year - Paving the Path to a Sustainable Future with the Mt Messenger Alliance and the Ngāti Tama Iwi (tribe) New Zealand 

In 2016, the Ngāti Tama Iwi (indigenous Māori tribe) was approached by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA Waka Kotahi) with a proposal for the Mt Messenger Bypass project to pass through their tribal land. This proposal required 20 hectares of land returned to the Iwi by the Crown, as part of settlement of a claim against the Crown for breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi. It marked the first time any Iwi in New Zealand considered returning or selling treaty settlement land back to the NZ Government.

Tonkin + Taylor (T+T) and WSP with the Mt Messenger Alliance (including Ngāti Tama as local landowners) have come together in genuine partnership to deliver the Mt Messenger Bypass (which has been gifted the name Te Ara o Te Ata or TAoTA by Ngāti Tama).

This transport project deliberately offers a dual legacy: one is a modern, safer and more reliable road infrastructure; and a local community that has greater capacity to exercise its role as kaitiaki (guardians) of the local environment, a commitment to future generations, and recognition of biodiversity to sustainability. T+T and WSP as alliance consultants have committed to integrating ESG objectives. Twenty-four route options were developed, and the selected route balanced minimal ecological impact, with Iwi cultural values, local economy benefits, cost-effectiveness and road safety for users.

Objectives around comprehensive mitigation and biodiversity offset packages to achieve net gains were also integrated. Reducing CO2 emissions by optimizing the road design, restoration of disturbed habitats and intensive pest management, demonstrate long term commitment to environmental restoration. Social factors include a safer, reliable transport link, improving community connectivity and mobility, with local communities and businesses engaged to ensure their values are protected. Integrating Ngāti Tama's cultural heritage into the project's design has also enhanced the scenic and cultural value of the bypass while respecting and preserving indigenous knowledge.

By engaging with the community and stakeholders to select an optimal route that minimizes environmental impact, and by implementing a comprehensive mitigation strategy aimed at achieving a net gain in biodiversity, the project sets a new standard for sustainable infrastructure.

Tonkin + Taylor: Sustainability Impact Award with Our Journey to Inspiring Sustainable Futures

Tonkin + Taylor delivers real-world sustainability solutions with the purpose: ‘Together, we create and sustain a better world.’ This has required systemic change within our business and the engineering consultancy sector. Our Pathway 2025 is supported by our Sustainability Strategy and holistic Sustainability Framework, and reflects the UN’s SDGs, indigenous wellbeing frameworks, and infrastructure sustainability tools.

Development and delivery of the Sustainability Strategy is led by our Sustainability Leadership Team, supported by a network of Sustainability Champions representing all teams. T+T rolled out our purposeful decision principles in 2023. These principles include Our Pathway, Code of Conduct, Sustainability Policy, holistic and long-term views of impact, planning for the greatest contribution and influence outcomes, seeking assurance that sustainability impacts can be addressed in our work, and support of positive outcomes for indigenous people.

In 2023, we reduced energy consumption through targeting a Green Star certification for two offices (having achieved NZ’s first 6-star certification for our Auckland office). For emissions we haven’t been able to avoid, we purchase high quality carbon credits through Ekos, and have been Net Zero Carbon certified for our operations since the 2020 financial year.

Our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) initiatives are designed to create genuinely inclusive workplaces with a focus on improving representation in T+T and the wider engineering sector with respect to gender, indigenous people, and rainbow groups. The program builds understanding and capability, integrating DEIB into policies and systems, developing targeted benefits for underrepresented groups, and supporting a diverse workforce through university and indigenous partnerships.

The work at T+T leads to the construction of infrastructure and other assets for our clients and communities. We work hard with our clients to minimize negative impacts and identify opportunities for positive impacts, and we continue to innovate improved approaches for these outcomes.

It is inspiring to see multiple categories and geographic locations represented in this short-listed awards event across our global Associates with the work we contribute to create a more sustainable future. We look forward to the Awards Ceremony in Boston, Massachusetts on 25, June, along with the Global Sustainability Delivery Summit focused on integrating sustainability for positive and purposeful impact.

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