Stonbury: The Sustainability Specialist
As the urgency increases to act on climate change and biodiversity loss, Stonbury has renewed its focus to put sustainability at the heart of its operations.
There is an urgent worldwide need to prioritise sustainability. The negative effects of climate change and biodiversity loss are already being felt through more frequent flooding and droughts, and shortages of food, water, and energy. The current AMP7 focus is driving the water industry to protect and enhance the natural environment whilst continuing to provide essential services.
In recognition, Stonbury has reassessed its Purpose and Vision, setting out a clear strategy which supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and drives sustainability by helping clients provide wholesome water, deal effectively with wastewater, create a healthy environment, and produce sustainable energy.
Providing sustainable water solutions
A Stonbury priority is to support clients to ensure the continued availability clean water, both through resilient infrastructure and sustainable management of resources. By offering services that increase the sustainability of both built assets and natural capital, Stonbury helps clients provide wholesome water for the communities they serve in an effective and efficient way.
Providing sustainable sanitation is also crucial, and Stonbury is committed to further developing its capability and presence in the wastewater sector. In addition to its refurbishment and maintenance services on traditional structures, Stonbury is proud to advocate reed beds to provide sustainable tertiary wastewater treatment whilst acting as biodiversity hotspots, freshwater stores, and carbon sinks.
After enrolling in the Achilles carbon reduction scheme, Stonbury aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in all its water and wastewater schemes over the coming years. The company has already removed petrol and diesel options from its company vehicle fleet and is working to eliminate fossil fuel from site generators after beginning the roll-out of Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO).
Expanding services
Reducing industry carbon is not the only priority, and Stonbury understands the importance of practices that sustain natural capital and drive carbon reduction through the entire water cycle. Expanding its portfolio to offer more environment-based work, Stonbury strives for biodiversity net gain in all its projects, leaving the environment in a measurably better state than it was beforehand.
Stonbury currently holds several frameworks for reed beds and river restoration schemes that aim to enhance biodiversity and restore rare habitats and plans to install more nature-based solutions that reduce the requirement for costly development and maintenance of traditional carbon-intensive asset interventions further along the catchment.
In addition to expanding upon services within the environment sector, Stonbury’s new goal is to establish a presence in the sustainable energy market. Its involvement in the construction of pioneering biomethane harvesting lagoons is just the start of that journey, and Stonbury hopes to expand further over the coming months, exploring additional innovative ways to use waste products to create energy.
Embedding a sustainability culture
Stonbury’s focus is to protect the prosperity of the people and the planet and implement measures so that all its activities contribute to a more sustainable world. This is how Stonbury wants to be recognised by its people, clients, suppliers, and the communities it serves.
Embedding a culture of sustainability is fundamental to Stonbury’s purpose. The company aims to increase sustainability awareness though educating its people and allowing them to take ownership of their contribution by introducing sustainability workshops where colleagues can share ideas on how to progress Stonbury on its journey.
These measures ensure sustainability will be at the heart of what Stonbury does for clients and in the way it delivers its services. Through staying focused on these goals and being relentless in their pursuit, Stonbury will achieve its vision of being known as the preferred specialist driving sustainability in its chosen markets.