Guidance

Full list of the Sanctuary Award Winners 2020

Published 16 March 2021

Category: Environmental Protection and Enhancement

Winner

The Curlew Head Start Project.

Curlew pictured at RAF Honington. Copyright: Harry Ewing, University of East Anglia

Project:

The Curlew Head Start Project was a collaboration between the Royal Air Force, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust’s (WWT) Slimbridge Reserve, Natural England, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, Amey and NBC Environmental across several RAF Stations. The organisations worked together to develop a methodology whereby curlew nests on seven RAF airfields could be identified and safeguarded long enough to enable egg removal to the WWT’s reserve, without posing a threat to aircraft activities.

Highly Commended

Landscape-scale Reintroduction of the Marsh Fritillary Butterfly Project.

Project:

An eight-year project to reintroduce the Marsh Fritillary butterfly into Minley Training Area, Farnborough, NE Hants. The team had a very resource intensive task ahead – with the need to understand why the species had been lost, as well as finding suitable donor populations. After four years of planning, 300 marsh fritillary larvae were collected under licence from six sites on Dartmoor, before being distributed for breeding in captivity. In April 2018, the first releases of larvae took place and these soon pupated, with the first adults seen on the wing in May 2018. Despite high rainfall, surveys in March 2020 showed that good numbers of larvae had successfully over-wintered.

Category: Social Value, Community and Heritage

Winner (Silver Otter Winner)

Restoration of Chicksands’ Historic Walled Garden project led by Chicksands Conservation Group.

Project:

Chicksands Camp is located in rural Bedfordshire. It is home to the Intelligence Corps, who are fortunate enough to share the site with the Grade II listed Chicksands Priory building and its adjoining walled garden. Sadly, with little direction and no investment, the gardens had been left to grow wild. The plants had been left uncultivated and waist-high grasses dominated the lawns and flower beds. There was very little evidence of what should have been a jewel for the community to use. In June 2019, a group of community members met in the gardens and decided to do something about it.

By June 2020 the Chicksands Community Walled Garden had become a stunning green space. The wildlife pond and formal beds have been re-established and treasures, including the grape vine, have been revealed. The garden has become a sanctuary for serving personnel and their families.

Highly Commended

RAF ‘Be Seen, Be Safer’ Project at RAF Shawbury.

A member of aircrew from RAF Shawbury with members of the local equestrian community. Crown Copyright 2020.

Project:

The idea for ‘Be Seen, Be Safer’ began in 2013, when Sqn Ldr Kim Leach took up post as the Community Engagement Relations Officer at RAF Shawbury. She identified some low flying complaints from the equestrian community in the surrounding area and across Shropshire. Mindful of the reputational damage that these complaints and potentially serious incidents could have on the RAF and MOD, Sqn Ldr Leach decided to draw up a five-year plan for a project called ‘Be Seen, Be Safer,’ with three aims:

• to reduce the number of low flying complaints from within Low Flying Area 9
• to increase the number of members of the equestrian community wearing high visibility clothing and equipment
• to ensure all RAF Shawbury based aircrew were trained in measures to avoid equestrian disturbance when low flying.

Annual Rider Awareness Days were launched, issuing over 4,000 pieces of high visibility clothing and equipment. The project has been widely recognised for its success.

Category: Individual Achievement

Winner

Sgt Ryan Duffy, RAF Brize Norton.

Sergeant Ryan Duffy’s fight against single-use plastics. Copyright: RAF Brize Norton Photography Section.

Project:

Over the course of two years, Sgt Ryan Duffy has been on a personal mission to drive down the consumption of single-use plastics at RAF Brize Norton. Starting with his personal area of responsibility, his initiatives have grown to encompass the whole force at RAF Brize Norton and beyond, reducing landfill waste and the carbon footprint whilst saving much needed money for defence.

Highly Commended

Rebecca (Becky) Wooldridge, Panthera, Belize.

Rebecca (Becky) Wooldridge, Wildlife Biologist, Panthera, was the contract lead and interface between the international wildlife monitoring organisation, Panthera, and Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) British Army Training Support Unit Belize (BATSUB). The project aims to collate data to inform and highlight both the positive and negative impacts on the wildlife, habitats and sustainability resulting from military activity within the Training Areas of Belize.

Highly Commended

Peter Feakes, STANTA Conservation Group.

Peter on a STANTA heath. Copyright: Peter Feakes

Project:

Stanford Training Area (STANTA) Conservation Group has existed from the very early 1980s. Peter Feakes has been a valued member of the Conservation Group for almost 40 years. Throughout his membership, Peter has been at the forefront of developing an informal yet very effective conservation partnership with the staff at West Tofts Camp. This has been the result of years of dedication by Peter and his long-term commitment and passion for the wildlife of STANTA has unquestionably enhanced the reputation of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) with several Non-Governmental Organisations and statutory bodies.

Category: Sustainable Procurement

Winner

The Corrugated Board for use in Military Level Packaging Project.

Military equipment undergoing packaging using corrugated board. Copyright: Conway Packing Services Ltd.

Project:

The Defence Equipment & Support’s, Support Chain Services Defence Packaging Team worked with industry partners to change the Defence Standard for packaging materials noting that the MOD were among the very few organisations requiring virgin cardboard for its storage boxes. The Defence Equipment & Support’s, Support Chain Services Defence Packaging Team changes mean that packaging is described in characteristics which allows for recycled content to be included in the finished cardboard product.

Category: Sustainable Construction

Winner: (Sustainable Business Award winner)

The Princess Royal and Victory Jetties Project.

Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers berthed together. Copyright: Andy Amor.

Project:

This was a partnership project between the Royal Navy, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, VolkerStevin, Jacobs and Naval Base stakeholders at Her Majesty’s Naval Base Portsmouth. VolkerStevin reconstructed two jetties at HMNB Portsmouth to create 21st century moorings that accommodate the Royal Navy’s two new 65,000 tonne aircraft carriers – HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. Working with design partner Jacobs, they met the Defence Infrastructure Organisation’s non-negotiable programme dates to berth the two new carriers, substantially completing Princess Royal Jetty three months early and Victory Jetty two months early.

Highly Commended

Modular Build Project at Westdown Camp, Salisbury Plain Training Area.

Project:

Soldiers training at Westdown Camp on Salisbury Plain Training Area, were recently the first to benefit from new carbon efficient accommodation blocks. These were delivered as part of the Ministry of Defence (MOD)’s £45-million Net Carbon Accommodation Programme (NetCAP). The programme will deliver 40 new carbon efficient accommodation blocks, providing more than 1,700 bed spaces, rolled out across the UK Defence Training Estate. This is being project managed by Landmarc Support Services (Landmarc) in partnership with the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and modular build specialists Reds10.

Category: Energy, Low Carbon and Resource Efficiency

Winner:

HMNB Portsmouth’s Combined Heat and Power Plant Project.

Project:

Portsmouth Naval Base’s energy consumption is the largest single site in defence, with an annual load above 120GWh. The arrival of the Queen Elizabeth Class carriers had forecast demand from the base peaks at an unsustainable 50% of the National Grid capacity in Portsmouth. To mitigate this, the Naval Base commissioned the installation of a 14MWe Combined Heat and Power plant. The plant consists of three mains gas-fired engines, two heat recovery boilers and heat exchangers, together with a 3MWh Large Scale Battery System to provide ‘black start’ capability and broaden further site operational and energy resilience.

Highly Commended

The Defence Innovation, Software Defined Electricity Project.

Project

Software Defined Electricity (SDE) is a product that is under trial with the Ministry of Defence (MOD). The project has been initiated by Lt Cdr Jonathan Parker, outside of his day job, rather than directed from the top. SDE is a proprietary technology from a small company in the USA called 3DFS which can measure and correct three-phase alternating current (AC) electricity in real time. It has not been industrially deployed at any scale and the MOD are so far the only external organisation to have tested it. The first trials took place in February 2020 at the HQ of the small company in North Carolina. These were funded by the Defence Innovation Unit directly and included Underwriters Laboratories LLC as an independent third party to verify the results.

The results were impressive with:

• typical mixed load efficiency gains of 25%
• inductive load efficiency gains of up to 77%
• phase specific power factor and harmonic correction
• neutral current reduction to a negligible level.