Wood is delighted to sponsor the Best Community Involvement category in the in-cumbria Business Awards.

This award recognises organisations that can show a proactive commitment to putting something back into the local community.

“Our business has been doing this for 50 years and it has helped to make us part of the fabric of Cumbria,” said Peter Stalker, Vice President for Capital Projects at Wood Nuclear.

“We were part of Nuclear Management Partners, which managed the Sellafield site between 2008 and 2016. NMP fully recognised its wider socioeconomic responsibility by donating about £26m to socioeconomic projects and charitable organisations in west Cumbria. This was a voluntary act, not a contractual requirement. Wood contributed 36% of the money donated by NMP.

“Our business at Sellafield continues to grow, as does our commitment to ensuring that we bring tangible benefits to the people of west Cumbria.”

The business maintains a strong engineering leadership team in west Cumbria whose members play a full part in the Centre of Nuclear Excellence and Energy Coast Business Cluster cross-community groups to develop and advise schemes like INSPIRA, Dream Placements, and STEM events such as The Big Bang Fair, to promote skills, education and aspiration in the region.

Working with the Centre for Leadership Performance, Wood supports the Cumbria Bright Stars challenge – an initiative to give primary school pupils their first experience of learning about business.

Local communities benefit from good health and safety performance by Wood's civil, mechanical and electrical engineering teams at Sellafield. Under the ‘Cracked it’ initiative, the company has donated more than £40,000 to local organisations since 2008.

Paul Fletcher, Wood's Sellafield Director, said: “Our deep roots in Cumbria are an essential part of the way we do business. Most of our employees are local, we make extensive use of the local supply chain and our people give hundreds of man hours of time to local good causes.

“We see a bright future for the nuclear sector and its workforce. And given Cumbria’s world-leading expertise, that bodes well for everyone who lives here.”

Wood's key role at Sellafield encompasses engineering delivery across the full project lifecycle. This includes working on design, safety case, construction, commissioning and asset support for operations, infrastructure and decommissioning. Wood is also part of a joint venture delivering the Box Encapsulation Plant project.

The business directly employs more than 280 people in Cumbria, including more than 25 apprentices, and many more in the supply chain. As well as Sellafield Ltd, customers include BAE Systems Maritime-Submarines, LLW Repository Ltd, National Nuclear Laboratory and Moorside nuclear power station developer NuGeneration Ltd.

The Cumbrian headcount is expected to increase by about 100 before the end of 2017 as a result of winning the £160m Operations Site Works framework to provide asset care for Sellafield’s reprocessing plants and associated facilities.

Panel:

The judges in the Best Community Involvement category will look for a business which can show its proactive commitment to putting something back into the local community.

This could be by:

*Providing financial support to community projects.

*Giving practical assistance in terms of time or expertise.

*Allowing charities, schools or community organisations to benefit from the resources of the business.

The awards will be presented by the BBC's media editor Amol Rajan, former editor of The Independent, at an evening of celebration at The Halston Hotel in Warwick Road, Carlisle on November 9 when the winners will be announced in all 16 categories.