Industry pioneer, Cognition Land and Water, delivers bespoke solutions to complex civil engineering and remediation projects
As an industry leading specialist contractor, Cognition Land and Water Limited (Cognition) provides safe bespoke solutions for land remediation, brownfield reclamation, and complex civil engineering and groundwater treatment projects. The company has an extensive portfolio of completed projects across many sectors including residential, commercial, industrial, nuclear, chemical and pharmaceutical. Driven by innovation, sustainability, quality and excellence, Cognition works directly with developer clients or through government bodies and Tier 1 contractors.
Founded in 2005, the company has experienced significant growth and recognition, enabling diversification from its original speciality as a land remediation contractor. “We now pride ourselves on being one of the most dynamic, multi-disciplinary, leading contractors in the industry,” begins Rob Fox, Managing Director. “We innovatively adapt our offering to our clients’ requirements and provide tailor made solutions for each project, saving time and money.” He further explains: “This capability makes us the obvious choice for clients looking for a company capable of managing high-risk activities and running operations in sequence. Diversifying into complex civils and geotechnical ground improvement projects, combined with offering services with added biological and radiological risk mitigation, has helped us to expand on our portfolio of clients.”
Innovative solutions
A recent accolade testifying to the quality of Cognition’s work is its receipt of the Ground Engineering Awards’ Contactor of the Year Award 2024. This category celebrates contractors who have been steadfast in delivering innovation, quality and value on their projects, while demonstrating their attainment of business milestones and profitability.
“We offer clients comprehensive solutions drawing from our expertise across a wide range of services. We have the necessary skills and experience to provide innovative solutions to even the most complex ground engineering challenges. Our biggest asset is our staff. Their expertise is behind everything we do. It is also why we invest so much in their personal development,” explains Rob. “Cognition is very dedicated to its staff. ’Safety at our core’ is our ongoing campaign demonstrating that health and safety is rooted in all that we do. In October 2021, shares in Cognition were transferred to an employee ownership trust (EOT). We would not be Cognition without our employees, so the EOT and our continuous investment in learning and development are testament to our commitment to providing a great place to work,” he enthuses.
Having completed multiple successful projects for Homes England, Cognition has recently been contracted by the organisation once again. The project’s value is around £3 million and entails site clearance, earthworks, drainage installation, and haul road management across the Northstowe Pond 5/Phase 2C site. Additional elements include ecological management and landscaping works.
Likewise, since May 2023, Cognition has been decommissioning, demolishing and remediating the former Pirbright Institute for Animal Health in Compton, West Berkshire on behalf of Homes England. The site features a complex mix of laboratory and office buildings combined with radiological, biological and conventional contamination, along with significant ecological challenges. “Given our teams’ diverse knowledge and experience,” shares Rob, “we can offer the client a turnkey service, covering all aspects of ecology and mitigation required to deal with sensitive species present on site. The scope of work includes demolition, asbestos removal, remediation, waste handling, biological and radiological hazard remediation, environmental monitoring, project management, regulatory approvals and liaison, and local stakeholder engagement.”
Carbon-neutral champion 
Cognition prides itself on being an environmentally friendly and conscious company with a deep focus on the sustainability of its work. “Sustainability and a zero-carbon approach are at the heart of our business governance. As a certified carbon neutral company, we constantly look for innovative ways to reduce our environmental impact and increase the sustainability of our practices across all projects.” In 2020, Cognition adopted a zero-carbon policy with the aim of becoming carbon neutral by the end of 2021. “By May 2021, we were able to announce that we had already achieved that goal some eight months early to become the first carbon-neutral contamination remediation and ground engineering contractor in the UK,” Rob asserts. “We have maintained our carbon-neutral status to this day by recognising that the greatest contribution we can make to reducing our carbon emissions is through the work we do for our clients.”
A recent example that attests to this commitment can be seen in a project completed on behalf of Enfield Council and Taylor Woodrow. The aim was to remove over 10,828 cubic metres of fly tipped and historic illegally dumped waste from the Edmonton Marshes area of Enfield. By adopting specific selection and segregation methods, Cognition was able to divert over 81 per cent of the waste from landfill, further protecting the environment through the recovery, reuse and recycling of the constituent elements. “We always look to offer value engineering to our clients,” Rob elaborates, “which not only helps with budgets but also provides huge advantages to the sustainability requirements of us and our clients. Ensuring we source local plant, labour, and materials not only improves social value but also feeds into sustainability.”
Supporting social value
Alongside its sustainability strategies, Cognition has recently invested more time and resources into improving its social value strategy. “We are currently collaborating with CHY Consultancy to improve our social value policies and activities. From charity football tournaments and working with local talent to our graduate development programme and our commitment to carbon neutrality, we have always engaged in social value actions. However, we are simply taking this opportunity to further improve the ways in which we support our community to broaden the positive impact our business has, both internally and externally.
“Looking to the year ahead, we have another flagship regeneration project in the pipeline. We are working on the Meridian Regeneration Project in Tottenham. This is a huge remediation project requiring expertise in all aspects of ground engineering. As such, we are looking to invest in acquiring strategic staff to facilitate increasing our capacity to take on more projects and develop our geographical reach.
“We are also funding Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA) guidance into the management of odour on brownfield development. CIRIA is an independent, not-for-profit body doing work to address issues, challenges, and opportunities for innovation and development across the built environment and construction sectors.
“Providing the economic situation remains stable over the next few years, we want to continue to grow and scale up our capacity to deliver more projects and increase our market share,” Rob concludes. “It’s an exciting time for us. We have a successful track record of delivering large scale, complex and diverse projects. This is now widely recognised within the industry and is presenting opportunities for us with existing and new clients. We want to do this sustainably and by increasing our talent pool. The new infrastructure required to support hydrogen manufacture will require earthworks, remediation and civils, and we will continue to diversify our growth into the energy sector via the vehicle of Cognition Clean Energy.”