Our Speakers

The Power of Soils and Stones – a collaborative case for our future

Martin Ballard, Group Head of Environment at Wilmott Dixon Holdings
Working with the Group’s SHE team to assure business Risk and Obligations compliance, Martin is responsible for the development of our people’s competence for environmental compliance, within the Risk Management System to meet ISO SHE standards, as well as for business risk, technology resilience, collaboration and road traffic safety.

In addition to his Group role, Martin has led SocEnv’s Soils and Stones group since Sep-19, overseeing the publication of Soils and Stones Report in Apr-21 drawn up to highlight common issues between sectors, the need for harmonised legislative for soil quality and health, with need for collaboration and shared good practice for soil/stone materials use across  sectors, including the built environment. Martin was appointed to chair SocEnv’s Programme Board in Jul-21 to deliver on the Report’s recommendations.

Martin is Governor and Chair of Audit for the Inspire Education Group, with Trustee directorships for CL:aire and the Welland Rivers Trust. 

Soil Reuse and Management of Waste on Development Sites

David Kerr, Consultant at Delta-Simons Environmental Consultants and Chair of IBN
David is a Principal Environmental Consultant with Delta-Simons providing environmental, EHS, Environmental Planning, Ecology, Sustainability and Wellbeing services at a regional and national level in the UK and Ireland, as well as internationally through the Inogen® Environmental Alliance, a global network of over 4,330 environmental specialists. David provides advice to a wide range of public and private sector clients on the management of land contamination and environmental risks associated with owning, managing and developing brownfield sites. David has gained experience as an independent Environmental Advisor and Environmental Scientist involved in the assessment, management and remediation of pollution incidents. David has professional experience in contaminated land surveys and assessment, human health risk assessment, environmental impact assessment, waste classification and invasive species 

The latest guidance from the SoBRA sub-group on asbestos

Simon Cole, Practice Lead for Remediation and Chair at AECOM/SoBRA
Simon has been a consultant in the contaminated land sector for over 20 years and is currently the Practice Lead for Remediation for AECOM in the UK & Ireland and the current Chair of SoBRA.  Simon has also been the chair of SoBRA’s sub-group on asbestos since its inception in 2013 and Simon has represented SoBRA on the Joint Industry Working Group on asbestos, was a peer reviewer for the Ireland Brownfield Network guidance on asbestos in soil and was the lead author of the NICOLE publication on a pan European Perspective on Asbestos in Soil published earlier this year.

Removing uncertainty in the assessment risks to buildings from hazardous vapours in contaminated soils

James Wragg, Senior Principal at Geosyntec Consultants Ltd.
Mr. Wragg has over 30 years’ experience in the detailed investigation, assessment and remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater, mainly working for industrial clients. Jim’s hands-on experience of corrective action programme design and implementation for many complex sites, including regulatory negotiation makes him a leading consultant in this field in the UK. He has worked with numerous clients in the chemicals, pharmaceuticals, power (gas, coal and nuclear), manufacturing, oil and gas sectors. Many of the sites Jim has worked on have involved the assessment of risks associated with volatile organic compounds and mercury including the human health risks associated with vapour intrusion of occupied buildings.

These have included residential housing, industrial production spaces, offices and laboratories at petroleum distribution sites, chemical, pharmaceutical and a wide spectrum of other manufacturing facilities. Investigation techniques applied in performing these projects include hands on use of Building Pressure Cycle test techniques, passive and active time weighted average indoor air, sub-slab and quantitative soil vapour surveys.  

The National Quality Mark Scheme (NQMS) for the management of land affected by contamination

Seamus Lefroy-Brooks, Principal at LBHGEO

Seamus is multi-chartered as an Environmentalist, Geologist and  Civil Engineer. Seamus is past chair of the AGS and of the National Brownfield Forum and was a founding committee member of SoBRA. He assisted DEFRA with the Part 2A statutory revisions and was one of the 12 experts appointed to the National Expert Panel for Land Contamination.  He is current chair of the CL:AIRE Technology & Research Group, which oversees the DoWCoP.

Seamus has been significantly involved in the recent initiatives in relation to asbestos in soils and was named by the HSE for assisting with their recent HSG258 guidance. He has sat on various CIRIA and BSI steering groups and is an author of the present BS8485 for landfill gas. In 2019 he was honoured to have been invited by MHCLG to tender for overseeing the EA - led investigations into land contamination caused by the Grenfell fire.

Sustainable soil management – is this possible? 

Joanne Kwan, Project manager and Contaminated land lead at CIRIA
Joanne Kwan is the Contaminated Land Lead at CIRIA managing the award winning contaminated land programme.  She has managed over 60 good practice guidance, more than 150 contaminated land events and developed the first UK asbestos from soil APP and e-training course.

Technical knowledge and experience

• Land contamination risk assessment
• Site investigation
• Remediation and management of difficult contaminants e.g. ground gases, asbestos, UXO and contaminated sediments
• Environmental and planning law and legislation
• Risk communication and management

Joanne is a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Chartered Chemist, a Chartered Scientist, a Chartered Environmentiist, a Chartered Water and Environmental Manager, a Fellow at the Institution of Environmental Science, the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management. She was a Visiting Lecturer at Cardiff University and an external examiner at Cambridge University.

Green and pressured land and soil - the policies that need to lead to better soil protection

Vicki Hird, Head of Sustainable Farming at Sustain

Vicki Hird MSc FRES is an award winning expert, author, strategist and senior manager who has been working on environment, food and farming issues for over 30 years. As part- time Head of Sustainable Farming at Sustain, Vicki manages the farm team, policy, research and related campaigning and provides comment and guidance on these issues. Vicki’s new book: ‘Rebugging the Plane’t, published on 16 September 2021, is a homage to insects and other invertebrates, why they are so essential to our ecosystem and what we can do to help them.

Prior to this role, she was director of Campaigns and Policy at War on Want,  Senior Campaigner heading up the Land use, Food and Water Programme for Friends of the Earth, and was Policy Director of Sustain, 1999 – 2004 which she co-founded in 2000 . Vicki also runs an independent consultancy on campaign strategy and research (including for RSPB, WSPA, The Sustainable Development Commission, Greenpeace). 

Future DoW CoP

Nick Willenbrock, DoW CoP Manager at CL:AIRE  

Currently Nicholas leads the delivery of industry initiatives, produces industry guidance, organising workshops and develops and delivers training (online and classroom based). Most notably this includes the CL:AIRE Definition of Waste Development Industry Code of Practice (DoW CoP) which he has managed since its formation and launch in 2008 and has allowed the successful reuse of over 130,000,000m3 of excavated materials. His work includes the formation and oversight of CL:AIRE Auditing & Compliance team which carries out continuous review of DoW CoP projects.  

He is responsible for the joint delivery of the ReCon Soil research project - Reconstructed Soils from Waste. The ReCon Soil project which is funded by the European Regional Development Fund via the Interreg France (Channel) England (FCE) Programme.  
 

Improving and protecting soil health, policy overview

Rachel Boulderstone, Head of Soil & Contaminated Land, Defra

Rachel Boulderstone has led the Soil and Contaminated Land team for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs since 2019. Her team is developing policy to improve and protect soil in England from further degradation and to deliver key ecosystem services and to help achieve wider environmental benefits. In her 20 years of service, Rachel’s extensive experience as a policy advisor within Defra has covered a wide range of areas, including waste management, rural development, flood management, sustainable drainage systems, inland waterways and environmental targets. Rachel has worked on numerous primary legislation, including the Flood and Water Act 2010, the Agricultural Act 2020 and more recently, the Environment Bill.