ABG is pleased to announce it has made the shortlist for this year’s Ground Engineering Awards. The prestigious event is being held at the Brewery in Central London on the 23 November, with ABG a finalist in the Specialist Geotechnical Supplier of the Year category. The listing comes in recognition of ABG’s response to the challenges posed by the pandemic and the added complexities of continuing to supply export business following Brexit.
The successful continuity of production and supply to the UK and export markets has contributed to the delivery of a number of strategically important infrastructure schemes in the past 12 months, with the specification of thin, light-weight and wide format layers of drainage geocomposites in particular helping contractors to achieve fast installation rates over large surface areas. This represents a significant carbon saving compared to crushed stone alternatives, with one delivery of geocomposites equivalent to approximately 60 wagons of aggregates. This also affords a big benefit in terms of a reduction in site traffic volumes and the associated impact on safety.
In order to enable the accurate calculation of the embodied carbon associated with using geosynthetic alternatives as an efficient drainage channel on highways, environmental and earthworks civil engineering schemes, and as part of our commitment to the UK Civil Engineers Climate Emergency Declaration, ABG initiated a project in 2020 to assess their company and product carbon footprint. The assessment is audited to the ISO 14064 standard by a leading international carbon footprint accreditation body, Carbon Footprint Ltd.
Product certificates to show the embodied carbon footprint of over 300 of ABG’s products are now available to help sustainability consultants and project design engineers see the savings possible via implementing more efficient and light-weight drainage alternatives. ABG can also assist in producing project specific carbon footprint calculations based on the site location, construction plant being used and the specific transport requirements.
It is these practical performance and carbon saving benefits that have led to supply on a number of major schemes, including the UK’s largest soil nail retaining wall for the SSTC A19 project in Sunderland, highways edge drainage and embankment stability on the M4 J3-12, erosion control systems for the Gedling Access Road in Nottingham, structural drainage for the Dawlish Rail Sea Wall Phase 2 project in Devon, consolidation and settlement for the Magna Park logistics hub and permeable paving for the Operation Stack lorry park in Kent.
These key infrastructure projects represent the supply of hundreds of thousands of square metres of UK manufactured product, helping ABG to achieve a record turnover in the last financial year and the highest ever production outputs from our manufacturing base in Meltham in the Pennines, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic and Brexit.
