Yorkshire Water has received a prestigious Green Apple Award with Keyland Developments for sustainability at its Esholt waste water treatment works in Bradford.

The Green Apple awards are now in their eighteenth year and well established as one of the major environmental recognition schemes, both in the UK and internationally.

Esholt is the water company’s second largest works and treats waste water from 750,000 customers in Bradford and Leeds. Following a huge investment to meet tightened river water quality standards, 13 hectares of filter beds containing 500,000 tonnes of material (river bed gravel and blast furnace slag) were made redundant.

The utility was left with a huge potential cost to demolish the filter beds and dispose of the ‘waste’ material in order to prepare the land for redevelopment.

Keyland, the property trading arm of Kelda Group and sister company to Yorkshire Water, recovered and redefined the ‘waste’ material for use as construction grade aggregate in connection with construction activities across Yorkshire.

Keyland has been operating across Yorkshire for more than 20 years, regenerating the water company’s redundant sites.  In addition to its work transforming Yorkshire Water land, the team also works alongside independent landowners, corporates or regulated bodies to overcome obstacles to development on strategic sites to enable regeneration by securing planning consent for future use.

Ryan Unsworth, Development Manager for Keyland commented:

 “Our aspiration to reduce waste and deliver sustainable environmental and economic benefits means that 500,000 tonnes of material will avoid land fill and help us to reinvest in our diverse regional portfolio. 37,000 tonnes of the aggregate has already been used in the construction of two new railway stations on the Leeds – Bradford line and 50,000 tonnes used by local construction companies.”