Members of the UK Chapter of the IGS met virtually for their annual meeting and appointed a new chairperson.

Former vice-chair Patricia Guerra-Escobar took over from Andrew Belton, who had been chair for the last two years. The vice-chair is now Dave Woods.

In his final role as chair, Mr Belton gave 50 participants a summary of the year’s events in the chapter. As with many IGS chapters worldwide, some activities were cancelled or postponed due to the pandemic, including the UK’s Symposium on Containment Engineering and Brownfield Remediation, which was due to take place in May.

The Chapter hopes to welcome visitors to a rescheduled event later in 2021.

Further updates included:

• • The IGS UK annual Golf Day in September attracted six teams this year.

• • Successful webinars were hosted in November in association with ICE and YGG.

• • The development of 15-minute ‘introduction to geosynthetics’ training videos to supplement university courses, as part of the IGS Educate the Educators program. These are due to be rolled out later in 2021.

The finances were also presented and new roles for committee members confirmed.

The meeting concluded with a presentation from Mr Belton on ‘Geosynthetic Containment Through Changing Times’, an interesting insight into how materials have advanced, as well as the development of the regulation and guidance surrounding them. Future success will be based on continuing to communicate the cost and sustainability benefits to clients, designers and regulators, Mr Belton concluded.

He said: “Modern containment engineering solutions with geosynthetics can provide significant potential for financial and carbon savings. We all have a part to play in promoting them.”

He also added: “It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to chair the UK Chapter for the last two years particularly through the last year which has been very challenging for the industry. I’m excited to hand over the reins to Patricia who will chair the Chapter into the next season.”

Ms Guerra-Escobar said: “Many thanks to Andrew for working so hard for members in his role as chair over the last two years. I look forward to continuing to serve members with equal vigor as we begin a new year.”

Find out more about the UK Chapter here.