03 Apr BSG Ecology short-listed for three CIEEM (2025) Awards
BSG Ecology is thrilled to have been short-listed for three prestigious Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) awards: Medium Consultancy of the Year, Best Practice in Knowledge Sharing and Best Practice in Innovation. To be short-listed in three categories bears testimony to the collaborative efforts of our people in driving high standards and is a great reflection of a wonderful team.
The Medium Consultancy Award recognises high quality technical work, commitment to the delivery of practical outcomes through our projects that benefit business, the economy, nature and people’s connection with nature. It also shows our commitment to the professional development of our people through training and mentoring, to reducing our carbon footprint, sharing learning and good practice with clients and peers, and promotion of ecological consultancy as a profession. We have previously won the award on two occasions and been highly commended on a further two. This is the first time we have been short-listed since becoming an Employee-owned Trust in 2024.
The Knowledge Sharing award short-listing concerns our work on red kite in Wales. The study was led by BSG in partnership with BTO Cymru and Cardiff University and funded through the industry body RenewableUK. The project aimed to improve the evidence base for Ornithological Impact Assessment and Habitats Regulations Assessment work and concerned modelling the impacts of red kite collision with existing and future Welsh wind farms on the recovering kite population. It required extensive stakeholder engagement. Data to inform the project came from numerous sources including renewables developers, the Welsh Kite Trust and raptor workers. Outputs included a BTO research report, an article in Milvus (the Journal of the Welsh Ornithological Society) and in InPractice. The outcomes should aid decision making and inform assessment work, and are already being widely cited. This is the first time we have been short-listed in this category, which is very exciting.
The Innovation award short-listing is for Project Juniper, a bespoke geographic information system with a cloud-based database that interfaces with QGIS and provides a variety of tools for presentation and analysis of data by ecologists.
Juniper has been developed through internal collaboration between GIS consultants and ecologists to allow us to work more efficiently and effectively with our data, alongside providing better data security. Plug-ins have been developed that allow us to run biodiversity net gain calculations, analyse visibility from vantage points, conduct avian collision risk modelling (for wind farms), automate the creation of standard figures in house style, and efficiently output thousands of biological data for submission to Local Environmental Records Centres (LERCs) around the UK. In 2024 48,467 records were sent to LERCs, and in 2025 61,038 records were submitted. We won the innovation award in 2022 for BatCam and were highly commended in the category in 2019 and are delighted to be short-listed again.
Short-listing for the three awards is a credit to the hard work, technical expertise and experience of our staff across our six UK offices. We are looking forward to attending the award ceremony in London on Friday 20 June 2025.