Emma Wren is awarded the Jack Lewin prize 2023

Every year the CIWEM Rivers and Coastal Group (RCG) committee present the Jack Lewin prize to someone who has made a significant contribution to the rivers and coastal sector.

This year the prize was awarded at the Flood and Coast 2023 conference to Mott MacDonald nature-based solutions technical director Emma Wren MCIWEM C.WEM.

The Rivers and Coastal group committee voted Wren to be the deserving recipient of the award this year “given her outstanding contribution to nature-based solutions and commitment to the natural environment both in and outside of work.”

Wren is a Technical Principal in Nature Based Solutions, driving technical excellence within Mott MacDonald and continually looking for ways to deliver benefits for the environment, particularly rivers. Outside of her day job, her passion for improving her local watercourses is fundamental to her voluntary roles in the wider community.

Emma secured £50,000 funding for the Collingham Beck Natural Flood Management (NFM) Study as part of a national competition in 2017, coordinating with the Environment Agency, Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust and local partners, and implemented a range of measures throughout the catchment.

Emma is a trustee of the East Keswick Wildlife Trust, having been involved with the organisation for over 10 years. Through this role she has championed fundraising initiatives to protect green space, introduced the next generation to river stewardship through her role as a Brownie leader and guardian of a mile long length of the River Wharfe.

Emma is a driving force in challenging the conventional ways of working on ‘traditional’ engineering flood management projects, championing the implementation of nature-based solutions and sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm from grassroots initiatives within her wider professional network. This has enabled her to champion rivers through her role as lead author on the CIRIA NFM guide, empowering the communities across the country to implement NFM based on best practice approaches.

She has been instrumental in growing the Yorkshire NFM Community of Practice through securing sponsorship and leading a programme of events to upskill and inspire a range of individuals and organisations across the region to deliver NFM at scale, for the benefit of all rivers in Yorkshire.

She has coordinated volunteering of her colleagues as part of the companies ‘Brilliant Neighbours’ initiative, including litter picking along the River Aire and tree planting activities in the catchment.

On being present the award, Emma tells us “I am absolutely thrilled and really proud to receive the Jack Lewin prize from my industry colleagues in the CIWEM Rivers and Coastal Group. I love our rivers, coasts and wider landscape and always encouraging everyone to use their voice, their skills and their passion to enact positive change. We all have a responsibility, both to our ancestors and our future generations to tackle the challenges facing our rivers and coasts.”

Find out more about the CIWEM Rivers and Coastal Group here.