Sunday, February 05, 2012

SuRF-UK

Article Index
SuRF-UK
SuRF-UK Steering Group
What is Sustainability and Why Consider It?
The Role of Brownfield Land
Meetings
Conference Presentations
Consultations
Reports
Contact Us
Links
All Pages
Page 1 of 10

Sustainable Remediation Forum UK

SuRF-UK is the United Kingdom’s Sustainable Remediation Forum – an initiative set up to progress the UK understanding of sustainable remediation.

What is Sustainable Remediation?

The process of identifying sustainable remediation is defined by SuRF-UK as “the practice of demonstrating, in terms of environmental, economic and social indicators, that the benefit of undertaking remediation is greater than its impact and that the optimum remediation solution is selected through the use of a balanced decision-making process.”

Why adopt Sustainable Remediation?

Soil and groundwater remediation, although designed to remedy contamination and reduce risks to human health and/or the environment, also has the potential to cause environmental, economic and social impacts. If poorly selected, designed and implemented remediation activities may cause greater impact than the contamination that they seek to address.  The best solution is remediation that eliminated and /or controls unacceptable risks in a safe and timely maneer, and which maximises the overall environmental, social and economic benefits of the remediation work.

SuRF-UK Applying Sustainable Development Principles

Applying Sustainable Development Principles to Contaminated Land Management using the SuRF-UK Framework, published in Remediation Journal, Spring 2011 Volume 21, issue 2 pages 1-138. Copyright ©2011 Wiley Periodicals Inc., A Wiley Company. DOI: 10.1002/rem.20283, can be downloaded at:

What are the objectives of SuRF-UK

Phase 1

  • The objective of Phase 1 was to develop a framework in order to embed balanced decision making in the selection of the remediation strategy to address land contamination as an integral part of sustainable development’.  This phase of work was completed in March 2010 with the publication of the SuRF-UK Framework Document.
SuRF-UK Framework Document

The framework document sets out why sustainability issues associated with remediation needs to be factored in right from the outset of a project. It identifies opportunities for considering sustainability at a number of key points in a sites redevelopment or risk management process.


Phase 2

Objectives
Phase 2 of the project was to assess the practical implementation of the SuRF-UK framework to provide the user community with a generic checklist of indicators to enable clear, effective and proportionate sustainable remediation assessments. The project road-tested the generic approach with real case studies, to disseminate key learning points and to refine the SuRF-UK framework if necessary.

Tasks

  1. To develop worked examples to illustrate how the SuRF-UK framework may be applied to a range of (re)development scenarios, contaminant types and remediation technologies/techniques.
  2. To develop a structured checklist of practical sustainability indicators for use in a SuRF-UK sustainable remediation assessment.
  3. To test the practicability of the above indicators during real sustainability assessment negotiations.
  4. To consult with a wide range of stakeholders across the contaminated land and brownfield sector to validate the indicator checklist, provide opportunities for external evaluation and case studies, and provide a platform for an influential sustainable remediation assessment approach in the UK.


This phase of work started April 2010 and finished in November 2011.

SuRF-UK Indicator Set for Sustainable Remediation FINAL

The SuRF-UK Indicator Set for Sustainable Remediation Assessment supports the SuRF-UK framework document.  This short document supersedes the initially published indicator set published in March 2011 following their further development and refinement through Phase 2 in worked case studies and discussion groups. The document describes 15 categories of indicators spread over environmental, social and economic factors that can be used for sustainability assessment in support of remediation decision-making.  It describes the factors included in each of the categories, how the categories were developed and how they can be used to support the SuRF-UK Framework and the key principles underpinning sustainable remediation that the framework identifies. The indicator descriptions can be downloaded at:
ANNEX 1: SuRF-UK Indicator Set for Sustainable Remediation FINAL

***UPDATED SINCE NOVEMBER 2011***

SuRF-UK Case Study Template

SuRF-UK Steering Group would like to hear from any organisations or companies that are using or planning to use the document “A framework for assessing the sustainability of soil and groundwater remediation” when undertaking a sustainability assessment and would be willing to share their experiences as case studies.  

The Steering Group has produced a “Case Study Template “ (below) to assist those intending to submit a case study giving outline guidance on the type and level of information that they would wish to see included in a case study.

The Steering Group would also like to hear from organisations/companies who would like support whilst undertaking a sustainability assessment using the framework document. A Steering Group member would be willing to act as an observer during the sustainability assessment and would provide assistance and clarification on the SuRF-UK process where required.

For further information or submission of case studies, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

SuRF-UK Phase 2 Case Study Template.PDF 21Kb



Prev - Next >>