2023 Awards Winner’s Highlight: Large Consultancy of the Year

Tetra Tech

This award was sponsored by:

Globally Tetra Tech undertakes 70,000+ projects annually in more than 100 countries, delivering sustainable developments using a Leading with Science® approach. The UK Ecology team has contributed extensively to the company’s global environmental ambitions through numerous impactful projects.

These include supporting sustainable residential developments such as Sandleford Park which will deliver 2000 houses and create a 70ha Country Park (64% of total site) and Llanilid, South Wales providing 2100 homes including the management of over 50ha of land for biodiversity.

Tetra Tech are leading the industry in nutrient neutrality with projects including Stoneham, Atlee Acre and Meon Springs, which together have provided 3000 kg of nutrient mitigation. This has facilitated c.2500-4000 new homes whilst benefiting sensitive ecological sites. The team are also supporting clients in the minerals and aggregates industry from planning through to restoration, providing significant biodiversity enhancements (e.g. at Needingworth Quarry), yet meeting the quarries economic and business needs.

One particularly challenging project was designing building upgrades for over 5000 military properties, undertaking the necessary surveys and including enhancements for bats allowing residents to live alongside nature whilst improving roost suitability.

The team share their knowledge with clients, stakeholders and more wisely with the profession.

In 2022, their ecologists had two articles published in CIEEM’s In Practice and 15 papers and articles in other magazines including BSBI News and Curtis’s Botanical Magazine. Presentations at external events included the IUCN International Otter Congress and presentations to clients on best practice, including Biodiversity Net Gain presentations to National Grid, Countryside Properties and Engie.

Tetra Tech ecologists regularly engage with the next generation by speaking at schools and colleagues have attended 15 events in 2022, including presentations and careers fairs, at local universities. Staff collaborate on research projects that help shape future decision making by statutory agencies such as Vascular Plant Dossiers and Stachys Alpina Research Report for NRW and Hieracium and Sorbus surveys for Killarney National Park. Staff have also supported International research projects including trapping bats in Zakynthos, Greece to determine the bat assemblage.

Tetra Tech are committed to being Climate Positive and Carbon Negative and the 2022 Sustainability Report reaffirms their commitment to creating more resilient and sustainable communities. The Report includes new baseline sustainability metrics for 2021, interim targets for 2025, and goals for 2030. Tetra Tech are reporting on Scope 1, 2 and 3 CO2 emissions. Further measures to be implemented include the decarbonisation of the electricity supply, increased electrification of the company vehicle fleet and requiring the supply chain to be Net zero companies.

Investing in the professional development of staff is important to the organisation and Tetra Tech supports and encourages professional development by a range of initiatives including bi-annual appraisals and regular discussions to discuss professional development with information stored on a database so that the Head of Ecology can review all training needs and run appropriate training. There are multiple career pathway options for ecologists including specialist technical and generalist routes. Each pathway includes clear criteria for each grade and relates back to the CIEEM competencies.

The annual in-person all Ecology team meeting is a useful avenue to share experience and provide targeted training whilst specialist ecological technical groups cover 14 subject areas which share new guidance, policies and case law with the wider team. Lunch and Learn sessions have covered more than 40 topics including Nutrient Neutrality and Biodiversity Net Gain and have included guest speakers such as Nature Metrics and feedback from external courses and conferences.

We will be posting further information on each of the 2023 Awards Winners over on our blog.