Unearthing the value of soil through collaboration

This CIRIA conference explored recent concerns that practitioners have in dealing soil as a waste and a resource. It also discussed how different stakeholders can work together successfully and help the industry to achieve the UK government’s sustainable soil management target by 2030.

Soil is a valuable resource that delivers a number of functions to support life on earth. It plays an important role in biodiversity enhancement, nature recovery and climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, ‘surplus’ soil which is generated in most construction projects is often considered to be a by-product of construction activities and is a ‘waste’.

In order for UK to meet the government’s target to achieve sustainable soil management by 2030, the way that soil is managed needs to meet many geotechnical, geoenvironmental, ecological, soil science, soil health, economic and social requirements. It is difficult to achieve this if clients, consultants, contractors, and soil scientists work in silos given the complexities involved.

Collaboration is vital to achieve sustainable soil management. This conference will explore what this means to the professionals involved. The event will discuss the concerns of different stakeholders when considering soil as a waste and a growing medium in SuDS. It will also explain how stakeholders could work together successfully to ensure soil management can meet financial objectives as well as deliver ecological system services in different sizes of construction projects.

The conference also included a site visit of the award-winning Bloc smart roof. This enabled the delegates to understand strategic drivers and the importance of collaboration, retrofit as well as the interplay between drainage, soil and biodiversity, passive irrigation, and climate resilience planning.

Sponsorship opportunities
For information about sponsorship opportunities, please contact Tam Simmons.