22 November 2000

DOE EMPLOYEE WINS ENVIRONMENTAL TROPHY AT IDEASUK AWARDS CEREMONY

Stephen Foster, a Regional Manager in the DOE's Environment & Heritage Service, (EHS) has won the Environmental category at the annual ideasUK Awards Ceremony which was held recently in York.

Wildlife, landowners and the taxpayer will all benefit.

The awards are presented to employees who come up with the best innovative ideas, which are implemented as standard practice in their workplace. Both private and public sector employees are eligible.

Stephen and his colleagues had been given the big challenge of monitoring Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) without extra staff resources. They had to find the most efficient method of checking on the condition of numerous and sometimes extensive designated areas of wildlife habitat to ensure that they had not deteriorated or been neglected.

Stephen said: "My suggestion was that a helicopter and video cameraman should be used to film the larger areas. This did away with the need for ground based surveys, thereby making huge savings on the number of days - and vehicle miles - required to carry out the monitoring exercise.

"In addition to the financial savings the method has many other benefits. It gathers valuable information on the wildlife of the areas and captures spectacular aerial photographs of our top nature conservation sites for use in publications, displays and talks."

Commenting on the award, John Faulkner, Director of Natural Heritage in EHS said:

"Stephen had a brilliant idea, but what he really deserves most credit for is his success in converting it into practice. His originality and determination have both saved us money and enabled us to do much more than would otherwise have been possible. Wildlife, landowners, and the taxpayer will all benefit."

Stephen first submitted his idea to the Ideas Scheme, the Northern Ireland Civil Service staff suggestion scheme. After the idea was implemented, it was put forward to ideasUK where it was short-listed as a finalist. A panel of judges interviewed Stephen about his suggestion and at the awards ceremony he was delighted to receive a trophy in the form of a silver swan for best idea in the environmental category.

 

NOTES TO EDITORS:

The ETSU Environmental Trophy was sponsored by Environmental Technology Best Practice Programme.

Stephen Foster will be available for interview on Thursday morning.

For further media information please contact Paddy Murphy DOE Press Office 028 9054 0014.