About Civic Earth
Civic Earth provide geoconsultancy services by our team of geologists, engineers and environmental scientists, working across the UK to provide geotechnical and geoenvironmental, soil health and material management consultancy services.
We are a team of geoengineers who care about planet, people and place. We are active listeners and proactive problem solvers who are driven by the carbon challenge we face. We recognise the connectivity between soil functions, material reuse, soil health and biodiversity, all of which positively contribute to the low carbon agenda. We provide analysis and solutions that look beyond soil strength and remediation to also consider soil health and carbon impacts in the sustainable treatment of contaminated ground.
We believe that effective collaboration of the technical disciplines within project teams optimises soil functions, which is critical to system thinking in the built environment. A sound understanding of the ground conditions is key to understanding and managing risk in development projects, and we use our unique blend of insight, intuition, skill and judgement to take an intelligent approach to risk that is carefully balanced with a commercial understanding and appreciation of the vision for a project.
Our Services
Geotechnical Consultancy
Our comprehensive review of the surface and sub-surface ground conditions inform our detailed geotechnical assessments and analyses, enabling us to provide concise and effective recommendations and innovative solutions for the geotechnical design of a project. We collaborate with stakeholders and regulators on predicted ground movements arising from proposed basement excavations, earthworks and construction activities to allow the monitoring and mitigation of potential impacts to neighbouring properties and infrastructure.
Our range of standard geotechnical consultancy services include:
- Feasibility studies
- Permeability testing for SUDS and soakaway design
- Interpretative reports to support design and satisfy planning requirements
- Basement Impact Assessments
- Coal Mining Risk Assessments
- Geotechnical Feasibility Assessments
- Geotechnical Design Reports
- Ground Movement and Asset Impact Assessments
- Slope Stability Analysis
- Earthworks Specifications
Geoenvironmental Consultancy
We provide the full range of geoenvironmental services, often undertaken in conjunction with geotechnical assessments, including Phase 1 Desk Studies, Phase 2 site investigations and risk assessments, developing remediation strategies and verifying remediation works.
We support our Clients from pre-acquisition through to site completion. Early involvement enables us to positively influence at master planning stage. We also regularly review existing information and carry out gap analysis, helping to unlock potentially problematic sites in a sustainable and cost effective way.
Our team have a thorough understanding of the planning regime across the UK from a land quality perspective having worked for both developers and local authorities, and have excellent working relationships with regulators and local authority planning departments.
Our range of standard geoenvironmental consultancy services include:
- Phase 1 Desk Studies
- Interpretative reports to support design and satisfy planning requirements
- Land contamination risk assessments
- Remediation options appraisals
- Remediation strategies
- Remediation supervision and verification
- Foundation Works Risk Assessments
Site Investigation
Our team’s extensive experience in the design of site investigation specifications and management and supervision of intrusive ground investigations across the UK enables us to provide bespoke, innovative and cost-effective approaches to a project’s design requirements. Depending on the project and the client’s requirements, we are able to design ground investigation specification and oversee the management of a competitive tender process and the ground investigation undertaken by one of our recommended site investigation contractors; or directly carry out the site investigation using our approved subcontractors and laboratories.
Soil Health and Function
Soil functions include supporting structures and biodiversity, plant growth, water filtration permeability and carbon storage.
A soil and landscape-led approach can realise real benefits in terms of optimising soil reuse, carbon reduction, biodiversity and climate resilient drainage design. The top metre of soil is the second greatest carbon sink on the planet after the oceans. An early understanding of the landscape, soil health and ground conditions is critical to optimising soil functions and creating spaces where people can lead happier and healthier lives.
Soil health, nutrient neutrality, carbon sink capacity and managing the legacy of contamination from historical industrial uses are of pivotal importance for our planet and its future generations. We believe soil-led spatial planning needs to be integral to the regenerative design process of today.
Material Management and Reuse Strategy
Material management is central to the sustainable development, on Brownfield, Greyfield and Greenfield sites. Through adopting a Reduce, Reuse, Recycle approach to earthworks strategies, we seek to minimise soil disturbance and maximise opportunities for soil treatment and reuse in order to reduce excavation and disposal of soils to landfill and the associated carbon impacts.
We strive to provide effective and sustainable material re-use and earthworks strategies and solutions, where we always look to consider the wider enabling works package; this can include consideration of any regulatory requirements, remediation requirements, cost benefit analysis and soil health.
Our range of standard geoenvironmental consultancy services include:
- Material management in conjunction with earthworks design
- Reducing volume of soil disposed to landfill
- Soil storage and handling requirements
- Material Management Plan
Our People & Our Work
Our team of geologists, engineers and environmental consultants are based across the UK are led by Director of Civic Earth, Dan Matthews. Our team is made up of Chartered Geologists, Engineers and Environmental Scientists as well as Registered Ground Engineering Professionals (RoGEP).
Our bespoke report style is a blend of concise narrative and data visualisation. This carefully curated, adaptive and customisable approach creates a distinctive signature Civic Earth style to all our work, that helps our clients, project collaborators and regulators to understand the key messages and meaning in the data. We avoid generic reports and information overload.
