Tagged in:
Inspiring Future Innovators at St John Paul ii Primary School
On Friday, 2nd May 2025, Lauren SeBlonka, Business Innovation Manager at Amey, and Elaine Nicol, Road Maintenance Manager at North Lanarkshire Council, visited St John Paul ii Primary School to host an engaging STEM workshop for Primary 5 students.

Their session focused on the environmental impact of carbon emissions and introduced practical solutions to reduce them—aligning with the mission to create more sustainable infrastructure.
The workshop kicked off with an interactive presentation, where Lauren and Elaine explained their roles in the sector, explored the causes of carbon emissions, and encouraged students to think critically about ways to combat these challenges.
Working in small groups, students identified carbon-emitting elements in areas of road maintenance, such as street lighting, surfacing, and pothole repairs, before brainstorming innovative solutions to address them.
To wrap up the session, students got hands-on experience by trying on personal protective equipment (PPE) and using dumpy level to assess the leveling of their school hall—giving them a glimpse into industry techniques used in sustainable road construction.
This interactive workshop provided an exciting opportunity for young learners to engage with real-world challenges and explore how STEM can play a crucial role in decarbonising roads for a cleaner future.
Other Articles
View all Articles
Trial Protocols
This document acts as a guide for future trials lead by the Centre of Excellence, highlighting how a ‘gold standard’ trial would be conducted to provide valuable and feasible data to the local roads sector. This will also act as a guide for wider trials led by local authorities across the UK, enabling them to collate and collect data consistent with our own. Creating valid, harmonious carbon data across the network.

CPC Future Foresights
This report, a collaborative effort between Connected Places Catapult and a consortium led by Transport for West Midlands, North Lanarkshire Council, Amey, and Colas, aims to empower local authorities to plan and implement strategies for decarbonising road infrastructure by addressing the external drivers accelerating low carbon materials innovation. This involves identifying, trialling, and procuring novel materials to replace carbon–intensive ones. The contents of this report aims to de–risk decision–making, align stakeholders with a shared understanding of anticipated events, and provide a foundation for the development of shared strategies.

Innovation Log
Road maintenance has long depended on carbon-intensive materials, making sustainability a pressing challenge. At the Centre of Excellence for Decarbonising Roads, part of ADEPT Live Labs 2: Decarbonising Local Roads, a three year, UK-wide, £30 million programme funded by the Department for Transport (DfT) that aims to decarbonise the local highway network, we’re driving change by identifying and championing low-carbon alternatives. One of our key tools in this mission is the Innovation Log – a curated, market-sourced database that empowers local authorities to identify, trial, and adopt low-carbon materials easily. We are excited to share this part of our innovation process, giving local authorities direct access to a resource that supports the selection of the most promising materials for trial and evaluation. Take a look behind the scenes at the tool that is shaping the future of sustainable roads.
Comments