Are you ready to enter the BIG Biodiversity Challenge 2018?
CIRIA has announced that the BIG Biodiversity Challenge 2018 has officially launched. Led by the BIG Biodiversity Interest Group, since 2013 the Challenge has invited the construction industry to add biodiversity enhancements to construction sites, developments or existing buildings, regardless of size, and whether permanent or temporary.
The launch event once again brought together clients, consultants, contractors, house builders, ecologists, landscape architects as well past awards winners who outlined their 2017 award winning projects, highlighting how any biodiversity enhancement, big or small, does make a BIG difference.
Getting involved in the Challenge and Awards is easy. Simply sign up to take the Challenge, enter the Awards, sponsor an award category or join us on social media @bigbiodiversity #BIGAwards.
This year we have also introduced an Innovation award that encourages submission of enhancement projects that demonstrate innovative habitat creation, application of bespoke interventions, data collection and collation as well as projects that demonstrate unusual and alternative approaches to the normal. Interventions and projects that provide a lasting legacy and support continual learning and improvement will be viewed most favourably.
Details of all awards categories can be found at www.bigchallenge.info.
Andy Haigh, Head of Sustainability (interim),Sir Robert McAlpine says “I was delighted to Chair yesterday’s launch event for the 2018 BIG Biodiversity Challenge which celebrated last year’s award winners as they rose to the challenge, embedding it’s ethos of doing one thing for biodiversity across a range of wonderfully diverse and interesting projects. Sir Robert McAlpine is pleased to continue to support the awards as a sponsor as we see the value in improving the biodiversity on the projects and wider communities in which we work. At a time when we have seen monitored species decline by 56% across the UK between 1970 and 2013, and a 47% decline in urban species over the same period, as an industry we need to champion biodiversity on our projects and look to find a space for it across all of our projects to help reverse this trend. The BIG Awards are a great opportunity to celebrate the best biodiversity initiatives across the UK, and share the lessons learned. We are proud to support such a great endeavour”.
The awards would not be possible without industry support and we are delighted to gain continuing support from British Land, Kier, Landsec and Sir Robert McAlpine.
Challenge and Awards are free to enter and they have a number of sponsorship opportunities for organisations wanting to be involved in the year’s Awards.
The BIG Biodiversity Challenge 2018 Awards ceremony will take place on 12 September, in London.
