WET News

Stantec designed a new outdoor classroom space as part of the Fellgate Flood Alleviation project in Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, for Northumbrian Water and South Tyneside Council wwtonline.co.uk | MARCH 2019 WET NEWS 7 be a core part of the contract. The joint venture produced a set of KPIs that cover issues such as reactive legacy projects, charitable funding and award successes in addition to several skills-related programmes, ranging from primary school engagement via STEM Water Kit to new apprentices and graduates. "It's not a bolt-on – it has to be embedded in an organisation," Stantec's Clark says. "I think that's a benefit for delivery but also for the people who work for the organisation because everyone likes to be involved in giving back to the community. It's a very positive thing for employees." Kier, meanwhile, has developed a Sharepoint-based tool to measure its commitment to corporate responsibility. The idea was developed over the last couple of years and brings together the company's various activities in the field, using the cost-benefit analysis approach recognised by HM Treasury to put a figure on the worth of each element and then produce an overall score. "It allows us to express it in a simple, very easy-to-understand number, but the thing that's important with this is the narrative," Rondel says. "If you turn it just into a number, I think that's a blunt tool. "The storytelling that goes with it is really important because you need to understand how you get to it – the skills, the wellbeing, the positive impact it has on people's lives. The number just lets you demonstrate you the scale of the impact." CECA is also carrying out work to determine the value such work can provide. In December, it published 'The Social Benefits of Infrastructure Investment', a report largely MOVING FORWARD As AMP7 approaches, one of the major themes across the water industry is likely to be the growth of multi-stakeholder engagement. "The whole hierarchy of approach to these things has evolved," Clark says. "From AMP5, we've really embraced a move towards sustainable solutions, to community solutions, where we've sought to identify the broader benefits. "Through doing that, we've introduced true partnership solutions with the Environment Agency, local authorities, local action groups and community groups. The outcome from that has been really, really powerful." Stantec's UK business is now making use of 'charrettes', which are common practice for their North American counterparts. The term, which means 'cart' in French, refers to an intense period of design work a'er which, in its original usage, a group of student architects would apparently be gathered up in a cart along with their models to be taken to the design jury as the deadline approached. In the modern usage, though, the emphasis is simply on community design events with a collaborative focus. "This is absolutely business as usual in some areas of the globe," Clark says. "It's a managed, well- facilitated process that brings in all aspects of the stakeholder community's input. There's a far greater understanding of the issues to be addressed and, as you work through the process, you develop the design collaboratively and get something that has buy-in from all. "Before, it was more about developing an engineering solution for the community but only engaging with them as you told them what was going to happen. The benefit of a charrette approach is we move to co-creation and real buy-in from the community." The water sector may also have to invest more thought into community impact while carrying out everyday projects such as pipe repair. If the only time a customer thinks about their water company is when they're late for work because of a trench in the road, or a'er being stuck behind heavy plant transporting materials to and from a work site, perceptions will be negative. While Ofwat is still finalising its C-MeX methodology, it is certain to demand improvements to the customer experience. For one thing, it is expected to look beyond direct complaints and seek to sample opinion more widely, which could mean someone who tweets a complaint about streetworks while passing through another company's region is categorised as an unhappy customer in that area. To deliver on expectations and add value to their brand identities, companies will need to find ways to minimise disruption and communicate more effectively. "One of the things we've done collaboratively with clients is to develop a customer engagement tool that helps to quantify the impact of the work we do," Clark says. "It's very important that, as a delivery team, we understand not just the design but the impact it has. "That might mean using trenchless technology rather than an open-cut, or rerouting plant, or positioning the compound differently – we can look at all of those fundamental decisions through this tool and make sure we have not only the best outcome in terms of performance but the best outcome in terms of minimising disruption and impact." Given that the Government estimates that roadworks cost the country £5 billion a year in traffic closures and disruption to businesses, a cost-benefit analysis approach might well indicate that using trenchless technologies can ultimately deliver significant savings. Similarly, many customers might simply be willing to pay more to NORTHUMBRIAN WATER SCHEMES Northumbrian Water has ramped up its efforts to deliver social value in AMP6 and has delivered added benefits to a range of projects. For example, the company has worked alongside North Tyneside Council and the Environment Agency to manage surface water at Killingworth Lake, recontouring its south bank, planting new trees and shrubs, and improving wildlife habitats and biodiversity. As part of the Whitburn Spill Reduction work in Sunderland, meanwhile, the company provided Roker Public Park, two schools and several public open spaces with water features, planting and landscaping in return for space to store water as well as rainwater planters within schools that provide amenity benefit and an educational opportunity for involving schoolchildren. "A lot of the projects we deliver under the frameworks will have associated social value with them, looking at how we can benefit the community," Northumbrian Water's John Murray says. "Whitburn is one that we're pretty proud of." Northumbrian is also working with all its framework partners on the Run2 Academy at their co-located base in Seaham, County Durham. "Students will come in and spend some time with our construction partners and our consultant partners," Murray says. "That really gives them a good experience of the water industry as a whole and not just one element of it. "What we're trying to achieve is to attract the best talent into the industry – if it's working for Northumbrian Water that's brilliant, but if it's just working in the water industry then that's good enough for us. It's trying to open those doors to get the best people." avoid the hassle. "The real progress-leading companies in this area think about outcome delivery," CECA's Reisner says. "It's not about spend but what you can deliver to customers and stakeholders. What they value is not the price they pay in terms of their water bill so much as not wanting to be disrupted or knowing that things are going to happen. I think organisations are starting to focus a lot more on these bigger outcomes and we will see significant change in this area." With customer expectations changing and social media providing greater to scope to voice opinions, the demand for social value approaches is set to grow, and it will be essential for the industry to show it can respond. "We run into it more and more, not just in water but right across our operations," Kier's Rondel says. "Even in the private sector we're seeing more and more direct and upfront enquiries asking how we as a principle contractor are going to deliver that positive impact as part of our operations. "I was at a property seminar recently with some big private- sector organisations, and to hear them talking about how they want to deliver and communicate what a difference they make is really encouraging to hear. If the private sector understands this, we're going to see some real traction." focused on housing and transport to better establish the contribution to improving people's lives. "Our job is to make the case for investment in infrastructure," Reisner says. "Part of that is the economic case and that's something as an industry we've been very good on for a number of years, talking about: 'If you spend £1 on infrastructure, you get £2.84 back in terms of additional value.' That's well understood – you go to the Treasury and they get that. "However, you don't build anything because it has a good business case. You build things because they change people's lives, hopefully for the better. We felt that there was a weakness in terms of ability to demonstrate what those social outcomes are when you do invest in infrastructure." On the back of the report, CECA hopes to create a framework so that – regardless of whether it is a water project, a power project, a road, a railway or a housing development – the social value will be measured in the same way. "It's still at the very early stages, but I'd like to think in the next year or so we'll start to see some development on that," he says. "You don't build anything because it has a good business case. You build things because they change people's lives" Alasdair Reisner, CECA "Everyone likes to be involved in giving back to the community. It's a very positive thing for employees." Ben Clark, Stantec Anglian Water and its supply chain worked in Wisbech to transform a disused school building into a thriving community hub Students from the Run2 Academy's 12-week shared summer placement in 2018

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