The Emerald Challenge will return this year. Image: Institute of Quarrying
The Institute of Quarrying has revealed the Emerald Challenge will return this year after being a major success in its debut last year.
The UK institution will run the challenge where the winner will get £5,000 for designing solutions for the quarry business and wider sector to reach its Net Zero Carbon and sustainability ambitions.
The challenge is open to IQ technical members (TMIQ), members (MIQ) and fellows (FIQ).
“It is important to us as a leading sector organisation to contribute to the essential sustainability and decarbonising solutions that will put the UK on track to meeting its objective to be Net Zero Carbon by 2050, in line with the COP27 agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals,” IQ and MPQC Joint chief executive officer James Thorne said.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity for members to get involved if they have research ideas and sustainability projects covering topic areas such as decarbonisation, energy efficiency, materials efficiency, circular economy, biodiversity and habitat improvement, pollution control/mitigation and water management.”
Two winners from last year’s challenge have seen their projects come to fruition. Quarry manager Andrew Gall, at Forestry and Land Scotland, created an environmentally friendly and cost-effective solution for managing silt during timber haulage road construction projects.
“I had the idea for some time but no way of bringing it to fruition. When I heard I had won The Emerald Challenge I really had to compose myself, because it really did give me a transformative opportunity to test my idea and try to make it a viable solution,” Gall said.
Gall’s vision was to revolutionise current methodologies and provide a low cost and effective barrier to “silt management” that is easily accessible, recyclable in nature, affordable and fit for purpose. This would replace the use of harsher and more expensive materials, plus the need for repetitive maintenance which are currently deployed.
Its performance would be judged and monitored using simple water contamination kits such as the kits provided by “Simple Health” WATERSAFE. The result being that the water that is being run off from quarrying works and road construction works should be safe to drink at source.
Extensive research conducted by Andrew, including during a very wet February, has confirmed that Andrew’s ingenious filtration, Silt Sump, idea works. As a result, scale up investment interest has followed from both civil engineers and ecologists in Scotland for wind farms and other projects, impressed by not only by its performance and reuse functionality, but also by its ease of installation.
“Without The Emerald Challenge, my idea would have remained as nothing more. By winning I got the impetus and confidence to do something I passionately believed in and make a success of it,” Gall said.
A joint project between Tarmac and GEARS, The Emerald Challenge submission focussed on reducing CO2 emissions in hard rock quarries through enhanced blast fragmentation. The methodology involved the purchase and installation of necessary equipment for baseline data collection, analysis, and reporting. Objectives included measuring various parameters during a baseline blast, measuring the secondary breakage on site, designing a new blast for improved fragmentation, and then re-measuring the parameters for the improved blast.
Oliver Kibble, Tarmac, and Thomas Clifford, GEARS, knew the potential, industry-wide, impact of the project in reducing emissions and achieving cost savings.
“The project provided the perfect opportunity to re-think the CO2 emissions created because of blasting operations. The platform and support provided by The Emerald Challenge Award, plus Tarmac and GEARS’ collaboration has fast tracked and enriched the project,” Kibble said.
The judging panel for The Emerald Challenge submissions sits the IQ President, IQ Chair, IQ CEO, and representatives from the board of trustees, council, and a representative of IQ’s Education and Training team.
The winning submission is set to be announced at IQ’s annual Fellows Lunch and Student Awards lunch event in November 2024, where the winner will be recognised and presented with an award in person for their achievement.
This year’s deadline for application submissions is 28 June 2024.
Information about The Emerald Challenge, how to apply, what sort of projects can be submitted, topic areas, who is eligible, and important dates are available online at: www.quarrying.org/emerald-challenge.
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