The Pirbright Institute’s construction of a brand new multi-million pound high-containment laboratory has resulted in a world-class scientific research facility along with a 360 Ingenuity ‘Thinking New’ Award from AECOM for the Institute’s creative solution of waste and demolition management using its Waste Harmony initiative.
Government-funded through the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), this complex project faced many challenges including how the Institute would dispose of the 45,000 tonnes of spoil waste in an ecologically sound and cost-effective manner. The Pirbright Institute Spoil Management Project worked in partnership with AECOM on its new initiative ‘Waste Harmony’ to find a sustainable solution that saved over half a million pounds on construction costs. The Institute was one of 13 teams to receive an award and was selected from more than 100 applicants from global projects.
Waste Harmony, described by AECOM as “a dating agency for soils”, linked up with other projects needing spoil for infilling and organised transfer from the Pirbright site. It also assisted the Institute in relocating wildlife that had taken up residence in the spoil heaps to adjacent Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
Steve Oliver who received the 360 Ingenuity ‘Thinking New’ Award from AECOM’s European Chief Executive Steve Morriss said: “It was great for the Institute to receive this award and be recognised for its outstanding work in balancing construction activity with ecological sensitivity. It proved the two can go hand in hand and lessons learned will shape the way we do things in the future”.