PFAS treatment technologies highlighted among recognitions
San Diego, Calif., Feb. 28, 2022 —Environmental Business Journal®* (EBJ), a business research publication that provides strategic business intelligence to the environmental industry, has honored Arcadis with four Business Achievement Awards for 2021. Arcadis was recognized in the new practice, project merit and technology merit categories. The organization was also recognized with two awards from Climate Change Business Journal, EBJ’s sister publication.
Of the awards Arcadis earned in 2021, three included the firm’s per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) treatment capabilities. The historically hard-to-treat emerging contaminant can impact soil and groundwater quality and has been identified as a critical target of Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding.
“At Arcadis, we pride ourselves on our culture of innovation and finding better, more sustainable ways of addressing the world’s environmental challenges. These awards are a welcome recognition and shining example of the work so many brilliant Arcadians produce daily. I look forward to seeing what creative solutions they develop next,” said Heather Polinsky, president of Arcadis’ global resilience business.
In the new practice category, Arcadis was recognized for its proprietary biodegradable cleaning agent, Fluoro Fighter, which is designed to remove PFAS layers from fire suppression systems. Additionally, a portable fractionation system, developed in partnership with Australian firm EVOCRA, earned recognition in the technology merit category. The system uses ozone fractionation to separate and concentrate PFAS from impacted media.
In the project merit category, Arcadis was recognized for completing a landmark project at Vandenburg Air Force Base using a horizontal reactive media well, or HRX Well™. A large-diameter horizontal well, the HRX Well™ is installed along the groundwater flow-path to treat groundwater plumes in challenging environments. It can be used to address a wide range of contaminants, including chlorinated solvents, metals and PFAS.
Arcadis’s final accolade from EBJ was a technology merit award for sustainable remediation. In 2021, the company patented a new remediation method: thermal in-situ sustainable remediation (TISR). Applicable in a broad range of hydrogeologic settings, TISR uses renewable energy sources to transfer heat to contaminant zones. The technology has the potential to reduce remediation-related carbon dioxide emissions tenfold over a five-year period.
“In a year of economic recovery, 2021 still posed its own challenges. It is a testament to the resilience of the environmental industry and its leaders in business and innovation to have such a fine constellation of winners of the annual EBJ Awards,” said Grant Ferrier, president of Environmental Business International Inc. (EBI, Inc.), publisher of EBJ®.
In addition to the four awards from EBJ, CCBJ also applauded Arcadis for its efforts to protect Lower Manhattan from the effects of sea level rise, coastal storms and heavy rainfall, and for the company’s commitment to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2035.
