OUR RISING STARS

We had some excellent submissions for this award and we were delighted to see such talent within the industry and the demonstrations of individual drive, technical knowledge and professionalism being demonstrated through the submissions.

The award shortlist featured these the candidates:

ABIGAIL SMITH – ADLER AND ALLAN, PROJECT MANAGER, POLLUTION INCIDENT RESPONSE TEAM

Abi Smith joined Adler and Allan in November 2019 as a Water Quality Technician, having recently graduated from university. She made an instant impact on our business and has already earned two well-deserved promotions. Abi’s natural organisational abilities, professionalism, and dedication to delivering results were noticed early in her career with Adler and Allan. She immediately demonstrated the essential skills to excel as a Water Quality Technician, which involves acting as a first responder to pollution incidents and measuring and recording environmental harm.

Abi is approachable towards all colleagues and clients and always goes above and beyond in her work ethic to meet deadlines. Nothing is too much trouble for her. She regularly contributes to group discussions and has presented innovative project management ideas that have been adopted and implemented by senior management.

A NATURAL LEADER AND TRUE TEAM PLAYER

Abi originally joined Adler and Allan as a Water Quality Technician in an established team in the South of England, working from the main OHES Environmental office in Wokingham. Abi was an exemplary employee from the outset and quickly progressed to an Assistant Project Manager position.

She took on her current Project Manager role in July 2022 – and has proven herself to be a gifted leader of people.

Abi project manages a fully remote team of twelve staff and is committed to building strong colleague relationships. She has introduced weekly team meetings to boost communication, productivity, and shared objectives. Because most of her team are new employees of Adler and Allan, Abi has also dedicated time, energy, and support to provide the best possible start with our business.

Her role consists of weekly check-ins with team members during their probation period, site audits, and instructing staff as first responders to all new pollution incidents. She also shares best practice and teaches proven methods of completing work efficiently and to deadlines.

Abi is committed to developing herself and her team and actively engineers opportunities for face -to-face connections. Her remote team are encouraged to visit sites together to learn from each other, pool resources, and develop consistent working practices. Abi then follows up with weekly knowledge sharing meetings to consolidate understanding, spark discussion, and fuel further collaboration. To expand her own skillset, Abi has participated in three-day IOSH and Health and Safety at Work courses, and a Water Awareness course.

CONSTANT COMMITMENT TO QUALITY

In Abi’s previous role as a Water Quality Technician, she focused mainly on preventing pollutions from escalating and further damaging the environment by responding quickly to site, gathering impact data, and advising on suitable next steps.

Over the course of 2.5 years, Abi completed over 500 water quality assessments following suspected pollution incidents, including being the first responder to 357 new spills. From this experience, she gained invaluable site knowledge that led her to become an expert on assessing water quality caused by recent pollution events.

Her work was very reactive and required someone who could respond efficiently to site and visit multiple sites per day. Abi sharpened her skills in working efficiently on site and promptly reporting all findings and data to clients and colleagues.

She also developed impeccable prioritisation and time management capabilities, quickly changing her daily plan to attend to urgent pollution incidents.

In her more recent Project Manager role, Abi’s exceptional attention to detail has shone through. She always exceeds requirements when checking the quality of technicians’ reports – and ensures her new team strive for the same high standards. Abi has invested many hours in training her team on meticulous report quality checking, holding one -to-one coaching meetings with all staff. As a result, she ensures all client documentation reflects Adler and Allan’s professionalism and competence. Her high-quality reports also aid her clients’ communications with the Environment Agency. By ensuring the correct categorisation of impact is awarded, Abi’s accuracy and precision potentially saves the customer up to £100k per incident on ODI fines.

COST-SAVING CLIENT CARE

Following Abi’s recent promotion to Project Manager, she now advises on appropriate impact assessments in inland, estuarine, and bathing water environments. Her field knowledge is growing day by day, and she has assisted in adapt-ing procedures for sampling in marine environments.

Abi also provides advice on further works, such as response and remediation and postincident surveys. She proactively involves other areas of the Adler and Allan Group in response works, such as sewage, oil, and chemical clean-up where necessary.

This demonstrates her ability to understand and link up with different parts of the wider Group and promotes joint working and collaboration across the business.

Abi has worked to develop and refine both internal and external procedures for our customers. She has been at the forefront of creating a planned works programme for the client, which highlights defects and potential risks in water utility infrastructure. These concerns can then be rectified before failing and causing an incident. This vital information helps water companies actively prevent pollution events and significantly reduce risk, liability, and potential for environmental harm – the very purpose of our business.

Abi Smith’s foresight, practicality, and genuine customer care bring to life our corporate values and mark her out as a Rising Star within Adler and Allan and the wider industry.

‘Thank you for always having a happy and positive attitude and a great work ethic. You have helped to make the transition to a new contract a pleasure and I look forward to continuing to work with you and watching you grow further as a new leader within your organisation .’

-Steve Gray, Reporting & Verification Manager, Operational Planning & Improvement, Wholesale Wastewater Operations Southern Water

DHANIK PARMER - MEL Environmental Solutions, Assistant Project Manager

Dhan joined MEL in December 2019 as a Graduate Technician/ Field Technician working in the East of England. Following graduation from Kingston University, where he obtained a degree in Geology and was awarded the Baker Hughes INTEQ prize.

First year was difficult due to the impact of COVID, however good start with learning the basics of domestic site investigations, and remedial soil and groundwater sampling along with the many aspects of stakeholder engagement required when dealing with domestic and commercial fuel losses. Developed a good understanding of the systems involved in the processing and management of domestic spills. Developed report writing skills and became the go to individual for technical drawing and software support.

Throughout 2020 and 2021, it became clear that Dhanik’s personality and empathy with the customer situation was a key skill. He communicated effectively with the customers regarding the works to be completed and coordinated well with the site team’s to ensure disturbance was kept to a minimum. Dhan has supported over 60 projects since joining MEL in the East of England, and has developed extensive skills and experience in doing so. During this time, Dhanik supported our team in Northern Ireland, during a period of high demand, where he excelled, hugely improving upon his environmental survey skills, as well as his communication and report writing skills. The team in Belfast were very complimentary about Dhan, as where all the customers he met on site.

In Early 2022 Dhan was promoted to Assistant Project Manager. Thus far he has managed 14 projects, which are currently in various stages of completion. Feedback from the customers regarding Dhan’s performance to date is as follows:

AUG 2022 – MR & MRS SPRINGS

– ‘10/10. All contacts have been extremely friendly, polite and hardworking. Dhan kept us informed throughout, even when we were away on holiday, which was excellent.’

Clean up following Storm Eunice. Customer dog kennel roof blow off, hitting fuel line outlet of tank, losing 1000 litres of kerosene to ground. Dhan was on-site on the day of the instruction, advancing a catch pit and absorbents to restrict further on-site migration via the site drainage. He completed the full site survey and remedial design, plus

its implementation and successful completion. The design had to include the sensitive excavation around the roots of two large oak trees with local authority preservation orders on them, as well as ensuring excavation volumes were kept to a minimum for sustainability reasons. Soil excavation works and reinstatement, with the removal of 107 tons of impacted soil, was completed within five weeks under Dhanik’s management.

OCT 2022 – MR & MRS WARNER

– ‘10/10. The guys concerned were very efficient, Dhanik and his team worked well and were courteous. Dhanik was very good with communication as to what was happening.’

In mid-August 22, MEL were contacted to complete a resurvey at a property, due to a misunderstanding regarding cover involving a third-party adjuster and contractor. The daily management and communication was pertinent, as the customer was in the process of selling their property. Dhan completed the survey and identified an unknown volume of kerosene was lost to ground form the customers fuel line, immediately adjacent to their kitchen wall. Within a week Dhan had arranged for a team to be on-site completing soil excavation works, brickwork replacement following a structural engineer design and further investigation below the dwelling. Dhanik found kerosene had impacted the soil below the kitchen and the internal brickwork. This was a troubling finding for the customer, but Dhanik talked them through the next steps and what our plan would be, giving them reassurance that all was in hand. Over the course of the next five weeks, Dhanik arranged for the internal strip out of a section of the kitchen and for the impacted subsoil and brickwork to be removed and replaced. The kitchen was then fully reinstated. The report for the works was issued on the day the data was available from the laboratory, which meant the customer could complete on their property sale only two weeks later than planned.

The Board of MEL and all his colleagues in the business feel Dhan is a worthy recipient of the rising star award, and is a great example of the talent coming through into the spill response industry. The industry is indeed in good hands, as are the customers who have suffered the pollution incidents, when individuals like Dhan are first to respond, and to provide reassurance to them and to mitigate the ongoing damage to the environment and any identified receptors.

JOSH DORAN - Oracle Environmental Experts, Environmental Consultant

Josh joined Oracle in 2019 as an Assistant Environmental Consultant straight out of university where he had completed a Masters in Marine Biology. In January 2021 he was

promoted to Environmental Consultant and he now manages spill response and brownfield investigation and remediation projects across the south of England from our office in Stockbridge.

In addition to completing the day to day demands of the job, Josh has worked closely with me in our involvement and work with the Plastic Pollution Working Group (PPWG) within the UK & Ireland Spill Association, and his passion and enthusiasm are plain to see in his work on plastic pollution response. He has helped shape the goals of the group and has been invaluable in assisting with our own research and development in this field, including the production of our research reports for the PPWG, and has been the key contact for the PPWG with the university of Southampton who have recently commenced a Group Design Project on behalf of the group.

Josh has managed some large domestic spill response and remediation projects for Oracle and has proven himself to be a very capable project manager. He will admit himself that he is still learning, and we continue to mentor and lead Josh in his career.

In his spare time, Josh is also co-chair of the South Region Committee of the Royal Geographical Society and regularly hosts meetings for the society and he has arranged for me to speak next year at a society meeting on the work of the PPWG.

Josh has also been instrumental in raising awareness of mental health issues within Oracle and in particular, has helped us raise money for the Movember charity every year since he started with us.

I have no doubt that Josh will go far in the spill industry and in my view his enthusiasm, ability and loyalty make him a perfect candidate for the Rising Star Award.

THE WINNER OF THE 2022 RISING STAR AWARD WAS JOSH DORAN.

Earlier on the day the Board of UK and Ireland Spill Association had agreed that the winner of this award should join the Board for one year.