For any asset owner with highway assets, finding ways to improve efficiency whilst minimising risk and cost is on everyone's mind. However, capturing an asset's condition has previously required sending workers onto live highways entailing lane closure and disruption to the public, both of which come at a high cost.

In this blog, we're sharing how you can capture information and track your asset remotely using mobile mapping.

The challenge of capturing highway survey data

Surveying a highway asset can be a disruptive process for the public and costly for the asset owner. Usually, a survey will require the closure or partial closure of the asset to secure the safety of workers. However, despite extensive training and safety measures, putting boots onto live highways will always carry risk.

In addition to public disruption and health and safety risks, surveying a highway asset can be expensive for you as the asset owner. On top of hiring surveyors and equipment, having lanes closed for longer than expected may entail additional financial penalties.

The cost and disruption associated with surveying highway assets highlight the importance of effective asset management strategies to minimise impact.

With industry-leading data capture technology, things are changing. Today teams are expediting their digital data capture process using the state-of-the-art 

The Leica Pegasus TRK is a mobile mapping unit which can be attached to a car and driven along an asset to capture high-quality survey data. This means there is:

No need for disruption through lane closures

No need to expose workers to live highways on foot

Reduced cost associated with conducting a survey

The survey takes place from the safety of a vehicle allowing your asset to run more efficiently.

9 ways a mobile mapping unit can support your highways project

 

A mobile mapping unit, like the Leica Pegasus TRK 700, can create a comprehensive inventory of highway assets, including pavements, signs, guardrails, and lighting. Asset owners can use this inventory to understand the condition and location of assets better and prioritise maintenance activities. It also functions as a record of the conditions of your asset.


Supply teams will have a full view of an asset and its condition so that when the assets management is out for tender, teams can bid with more clarity and prevent issues further down the line.



Capture detailed information about the condition of highway assets, such as cracks, potholes, and other defects. This data can help asset owners identify areas requiring maintenance or repair before becoming more costly. This data can be uploaded into Common Visualisation Environments to create digital twins of assets so that teams can explore highway assets in 2D or 3D, preventing the need to watch footage of a vehicle driving along the road.



Mobile mapping can help identify safety hazards, such as areas with poor visibility or inadequate signage. Asset owners can use this information to implement safety measures and reduce the risk of accidents.



The Pegasus TRK 700 can capture high-resolution images of pavement surfaces, and environmental factors, such as vegetation and drainage patterns, that can impact highway maintenance and planning. This allows you to highlight areas that require resurfacing or other maintenance work.



Record of as-built and as-constructed modelling



Capture the work that has taken place on-site and compare it to what was planned. Keep a visual record of your site.




Mobile mapping can help track the location and condition of assets over time, allowing asset owners to monitor changes, highlight issue areas, and stay informed of maintenance activities.




By identifying areas that require maintenance or repair, mobile mapping can help you to optimise your maintenance budget and reduce costs over time. Use that data to identify areas which can be addressed in one go to minimise disruption to your asset.



The detailed data captured can help asset owners make more informed decisions about future planning and development, including infrastructure upgrades and capacity expansion.

Conclusion: improving the efficiency of your asset management

By leveraging the power of mobile mapping and digital data capture, highway asset owners can improve the efficiency of their asset management processes. This includes reducing disruption through lane closures, exposing workers to less risk on live highways, and optimising maintenance budgets.

Interested in learning more about digital data capture? Why not read how 

Connect Plus and Osborne digitally mapped the UK’s busiest motorway

Efficient highway management: How mobile mapping supports surveys

See your project with hourly syncs to Autodesk Construction Cloud, so you can boost certainty and solve anything, together.

Sensat releases integration with Autodesk to help teams working on infrastructure delivery automate information management and maximise decision confidence.

Over the last two years, Sensat has been used to drive effective decision-making across project teams on over $250bn of complex Infrastructure delivery. By unlocking the programme information that matters and putting it into the hands of those that need it, Sensat is helping to create a new experience within Infrastructure delivery where teams can align around constraints, increase engagement, be more confident around decisions, gain more clarity on plans and ultimately make fewer mistakes and with less rework.

Throughout our journey, we are continually striving to make it more straightforward to bring information from different tools together. Today we can finally lift the lid on the next stage of our strategy, starting with our integration with 

. Teams can now directly connect their common data environments to Sensat's 

 to automatically access files, so they can be visualised together, seamlessly with all your other project data. The ACC-Sensat integration enables you to benefit from the CDE’s single source of truth, information management and version control to unlock that information - in context - for everybody that needs it. Working with our customers, this has been shown to deliver significant measured programme benefits across cost, safety, sustainability and certainty.

Aligned teams, working together, is the cornerstone of successful project delivery.

On large-scale Infrastructure projects, a common data environment (CDE) is the de-facto library of programme information including large numbers of drawings and CAD models for the local environment, existing infrastructure, and proposed works. While they provide great tooling for approval workflows and version control, the data can be split amongst multiple project repositories and is not easily accessible to everyone that may need it. When information remains hidden from teams it is not being used to its full potential.

Sensat's Common Visualisation Environment® (CVE) 

combines all of your project's important information so you can see your data together in the context of the real world. This is providing teams with a seamless interactive view of their Infrastructure projects like never before, enabling teams to gain deeper insights and bridge the gap between technical and non-technical stakeholders. However, when teams are relying on manual processes to transfer data between systems, inefficiencies and additional risks are introduced.

During a project's life cycle designs and plans change numerous times as new information comes to light, issues are managed, and risks are mitigated. It is vital that project teams keep on top of all changes to ensure they are working with the latest information at all times, maintaining a single source of truth, otherwise they run the risk of costly mistakes.

As multiple disciplines are involved across a project, issues can often present themselves at the interfaces between each area. Having access to complete site information provides the opportunity to spot these issues early, and at best avoid certain classes of risk entirely.

Furthermore, it's not enough to just enable access to the data. Team members need to be confident they are using the latest versions, be able to understand what they’re looking at in context, and must have visibility of pertinent metadata such as the Status, Issuing Organisation, Discipline, Reason For Issue, and so forth. Maintaining visibility of these additional properties as files are made available across different tools enables your project to maximise the benefit of implementing ISO 19650 guidelines, ensuring team members can act without unnecessary delay.

Sensat’s newest integration addresses these key areas, removing manual steps so you can trust that content is always up-to-date, covers all disciplines, and retains its metadata. Your teams will be able to get up and running faster with the certainty they have the right information to make critical project decisions.

“Sensat makes our existing data more valuable because it helps us to understand everything in context.” —

Adam Talbot, Head of Digital and Data, Balfour Beatty

Automated File Sync - Autodesk® Build, Autodesk Docs and BIM 360 Docs

“Confident decision-making can be difficult without a clear and accurate representation of project data,” 

said James Cook, director of integration partnerships, Autodesk Construction Solutions.

 “Combining critical construction documentation from Autodesk Construction Cloud with Sensat’s digital twin technology will give project teams a detailed and up-to-date visualisation of their documents within a real-world representation of their jobsites. This integration will enable teams to unlock a better understanding of their data and empower more confident decision-making for project stakeholders.”

Sensat's integration with Autodesk Construction Cloud is enabling project teams to work more effectively and with greater confidence. By making it trivial to surface all your latest project files from Autodesk® Build, Autodesk Docs and BIM 360 Docs directly in Sensat you ensure teams have access to an up-to-date picture of your project while preserving the CDE as the source of truth. Eliminate the risk of data being out of date or missing entirely from Sensat - now teams can focus on acting on the information at hand rather than chasing it down and shuttling it around.

Sensat can now be set up as a custom integration within the Autodesk administrators console.

Files within the configured folders will then automatically sync to Sensat every hour. They will appear in the uploads panel alongside your user uploaded content and will have an additional 'sync' icon to make it clear they are automatically kept up to date. Additional file properties such as 

, and custom properties will also be displayed to give your team certainty they are using the latest data.

For peace of mind, any folders or files synchronised to Sensat cannot be renamed, deleted, or have their CDE metadata updated without disconnecting or reconfiguring the integration with ACC. This ensures that your CDE remains the source of truth for this data with Sensat providing the federated visual environment on top.

Reduce time to value and streamline workflows

“Visualising data in a real-world context is a very 'human' way of interpreting data. Sensat’s integration with Autodesk Construction Cloud’s common data environment will help to inform digital twin environments that teams can rely on for the most up-to-date project view. This is the first of many integrations with CDEs, so watch this space.”—James Dean, CEO and Co-Founder at Sensat.

Integrating your common data environment with Sensat from the get-go allows you to hit the ground running, immediately enabling your teams to visualise all project data seamlessly together. Tailor it to suit your workflow and use-cases, surfacing up new information and design revisions as they are created or when they have passed certain approval gates such as the ISO 19650 

 state. However you choose to work, the integration will ensure the right data is automatically available in Sensat to help your teams to stay aligned, identify errors and risks, mitigate costly delays and rework, and highlight opportunities to optimise execution.

To get started contact your Customer Success Manager or 

Elevate teamwork with the Autodesk integration for Sensat 

Mobile mapping is a rapidly evolving technology that enables data acquisition and visualisation in real-time. It allows for the collection of accurate, engineering-grade survey data at a much faster rate than traditional methods, making it an ideal solution for a variety of applications, including transportation, utilities, infrastructure, and construction.

In this blog, Sensat's Head of survey Solutions, George Dey uncovers the benefits of mobile mapping, its uses, and the technology behind it.

Mobile mapping is a method of data collection that utilises advanced technology to gather information about the environment, including streets, buildings, and other structures. It involves the use of a mobile mapping system, which is typically mounted on a vehicle and consists of various sensors and cameras.

The system collects data as it moves through the environment, using sensors to measure distances, angles, and other attributes. The data is then processed to create a 3D model of the environment, which can be used for a variety of applications, including surveying, asset management, and planning.

One of the biggest advantages of mobile mapping is its speed. Traditional surveying methods can be time-consuming and labour-intensive, requiring teams of surveyors to spend hours or even days in the field. With mobile mapping, data can be collected at a much faster rate, reducing the time and cost of surveys.

Mobile Mapping has the ability to capture engineering-grade data without the risk of human error.  The use of advanced sensors and cameras allows for precise measurements and the creation of detailed 3D models that can be used for a variety of applications.

Another benefit of mobile mapping is its versatility. It can be used for a wide range of applications, from transportation planning to infrastructure management. It is particularly useful for large-scale projects that require detailed data collection over a wide area.

Mobile mapping technology has a wide range of applications in industries. By providing detailed data and visual representations of the environment, it allows for better decision-making, planning, and management of resources.

Transportation Planning: Mobile mapping can be used to collect data on road conditions, traffic patterns, and infrastructure. This data can be used to inform transportation planning and improve safety on the roads.

Utilities: Mobile mapping can be used to map the location of utility infrastructure, such as gas pipelines, water mains, and power lines. This information can be used to improve maintenance and repair operations.

Construction: Mobile mapping can be used to create detailed 3D models of construction sites, enabling builders to visualise the project and identify potential issues before construction begins.

Asset Management: Mobile mapping can be used to create detailed inventories of assets, such as buildings, roads, and bridges. This information can be used to plan maintenance and repair operations and allocate resources more efficiently.

Mobile mapping systems typically consist of a variety of sensors and cameras that work together to collect and process data. Here are some of the key components of a mobile mapping system:

: LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a remote sensing technology that uses laser beams to measure distances. It is commonly used in mobile mapping systems to create precise 3D models of the environment.

: GPS (Global Positioning System) is a satellite-based navigation system that can be used to determine the location of a mobile mapping system.

: Cameras are used to capture images of the environment, which can be used to create a visual record of the survey area.

: An IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) is used to measure the orientation and acceleration of a mobile mapping system. This information is used to determine the position and orientation of the system as it moves through the environment.

In conclusion, mobile mapping is a game-changing technology that provides fast, accurate, and engineering-grade survey data. Its benefits include its speed, accuracy, versatility, and the ability to collect data on a large scale. And as the technology continues to evolve, we can expect to see more applications for mobile mapping and an even greater impact on industries that rely on accurate and efficient survey data collection.

Learn more about our mobile mapping unit 

Mobile Mapping: A game-changing solution for quick and accurate survey data collection

As we celebrate International Women’s Day 2023, we take a moment to reflect on the experiences of women in tech from Sensat’s lens.

 has set their focus on improving equality for women in tech, highlighting the ongoing challenges that women face in the industry.  In line with this theme, we spoke to some of our team about their experiences and the advice they would give to other women looking to join the industry.

At Sensat, we believe that diversity and inclusivity are essential to driving innovation across all industries serving diverse populations. And to support this, we are committed to empowering women in tech, starting from within our organisation. We recognise that in the industry there is still a long way to go in achieving gender equality, not just in tech but in all industries. As we look to the future, we are excited to see more women enter the tech industry.

We spoke to the Sensat team who reflected on their experiences in tech.

Lotte has been with Sensat for just under a year and pins her journey in Software Engineering on, “finding Maths-ey stuff quite satisfying”. Lotte studied Astrophysics at University which introduced her to her first bit of coding. This led to her doing a generalist Computer Science master's degree which gave her the confidence and grounding to apply for Software Engineering jobs.

What has your journey been like in Software Engineering?

“I joined the Software Engineering Graduate Scheme at Sky, where I was one of 3 women out of a cohort of 50, which was tough! There was a feeling of sticking out like a sore thumb, and I felt a lot of pressure to prove that not only was I individually capable of doing the work but that my gender as represented by me was worthy of the role. However, by the time I left, Sky had set up free coding boot camps for women career-changers, eventually bringing the gender balance on the Software Engineering scheme to around 50%.”

What advice would you give to your younger self?

“Find your allies and your mentors. Ask for support. When you’re in such a minority, especially starting out, you can end up feeling isolated, and in my experience, that’s an easy route to losing motivation and interest and feeling like you’re stagnating. The best way out of that is to talk about it, and find the people who can help you identify your strengths and advocate for yourself.”

Kat is Sensat’s Director of Product however her career didn’t start in Product. Kat initially pursued a career in TV/radio production but found the fast-paced, unstable nature of the industry wasn't for her. Kat underpinned that what she enjoyed about radio was researching and making things that brought happiness to others. She searched for a job that involved creativity, crafting things that would be used by others, and had an atypical office set-up.  Then she was hooked by a job advert in Product that basically read “we are some people in a room, we don’t know what we’re doing but we’re trying to build something and we’re going to have a lot of fun doing it”, and the rest was history.

How have you learnt to be an advocate for everyone’s voices when leading a team to make sure everyone is heard?

“I worked with a leadership coach for a couple of years and one of the takeaways was the importance of creating a space where everyone feels truly safe to be themselves, whether that was in a one-to-one setting or within a team setting. This is always something I try to bring to every role I have. Part of this is encouraging teams to get to really know each other beyond the everyday meetings so that there is an inherent level of trust that leads to everybody feeling confident that when they speak they will be listened to.

I also believe it is important to lead in a way that offers up equal opportunities in the day-to-day. I encourage a very open atmosphere within the team where everyone is aware of everything that is going on and everybody has an opportunity to get involved at different levels.”

One of the missions for 2023 IWD is improving the equality for women in tech, what do you think the industry can do to support this mission?

“I believe the culture that is sculpted within start-ups is incredibly important for equality. Those in the position of being able to influence culture should put equality front and centre. There are the more obvious areas that should be considered right from the beginning such as equal hiring, equal pay, equal opportunities, equal parental leave etc. But beyond this, it can be the everyday things that can lead to women feeling deterred from the industry. For example from the way the office has been designed to the way meetings are run to the perks that are offered. Although they may seem subtle these things need to be thought about inside and out to create an environment that is welcoming and fair to all.”

Kate began her journey with Sensat fresh from university as an Assistant Engineer on Sensat’s Data Capture team. “I have always loved working in the field and being hands-on. Joining the data capture team gave me ample opportunity to travel around the UK, learn new skills and manage projects on-site”, she explains. From this role, Kate has progressed into a project management role which complimented Kate’s previous experience in problem-solving and collaborating with teams.

What advice would you have for anyone who works on-site and is looking to be an ally to under-represented groups?

“I would say the first place to start is by being inclusive and welcoming to any new visitors to the site, regardless of who they are. I think that education is key to understanding the inequalities minority groups may face, and just engaging and recognising groups that may need additional support is a first step. And, if you do see something which seems wrong, don’t be a bystander, take action and say something. Suggestions for change are always accepted.

As a woman on site I have felt very welcomed and accommodated when visiting a new site, other site workers are often very friendly saying hello and offering help where needed. I have left a site with good impressions when the extra effort has been made to introduce you to site teams and share things such as facility locations.”

At Sensat, we believe that everyone should have an equal opportunity to succeed, regardless of their gender, race or background. We believe that by supporting and empowering women in tech, we can create a more diverse and inclusive industry that benefits everyone. Sensat is committed to creating a culture that values and welcomes diversity, and we will continue to challenge ourselves and our industry to do better.

Happy International Women’s Day 2023 from Sensat!

Celebrating women in tech

Critical infrastructure is often referred to as being the backbone of society and the economy—the economy needs reliable infrastructure to connect people, businesses, cities, supply chains, and keep industry moving. Without effective infrastructure, communities would be cut off.

But far from connectivity being solely physical, the networked activity that underpins infrastructure continues to grow at a rapid pace, as the Government’s 

 remarks, “The Digital World is a reality in all of our lives”. And the reality is, our dependency on cyberspace not only opens up huge opportunities, but also presents risks far beyond just surfing the web, shopping or social networking online.

As the world was forced to work from home in 2020, the pandemic turbo-powered widespread cloud-based communication and collaboration technology adoption. This included creating blocks of cyberspace that represent our physical world, and as such are fundamental to our national infrastructure’s resilience. As civil infrastructure moves more online, digital and physical systems are converging, making securing them more complex, and when any cyberattack aimed at civil infrastructure has the ability to put entire countries and communities at risk, protecting the systems that underpin our infrastructure projects is vital.

 found that 74% of organisations are not prepared for cyber attacks and do not have a response plan in place to protect them. The effects of a cyber attack on an infrastructure project, no matter the lifecycle stage, could have devastating effects, from exposing proposals or option selections, compromising the build strategy or leaving an asset vulnerable to attack endangering workers as well as the public.

At Sensat, we believe that cyber security must be central to any project so that the data powering and informing it is protected from crime as extreme as terrorism, but also other forms of criminality such as theft, ransomware, and those known as ‘hacktivits’. For your project, data breaches not only impact business and revenue, but can also inflict significant reputational damage. This is why at Sensat, we have a robust information security management system (ISMS) that protects our customers from risks such as these.

Today we celebrate Sensat’s renewal of our certification for ISO 27001 and explore how you can keep your data safe.

Of the data security accreditations, ISO 27001 is among the most widely recognized security standards in the world. ISO 27001 is the international standard and framework for information security which sets out the specification for an information security management system (ISMS). An ISMS is a set of policies, procedures, processes and systems that manage information risks, such as cyber attacks, hacks, data leaks or theft. This framework covers everything from the way we store client data, to best practices for risk assessment and mitigation and serves as an indication that our ISMS, at Sensat, is aligned with information security best practices.

Gaining accreditation is not a one time pass, an ISMS must be regularly updated to review risks and internal processes as well as avoid data breaches to be effective over time. ISO accreditation means that companies have to be regularly audited to ensure that they continue to comply with standards and our next external audit will be in October 2022.

What does having ISO 27001 mean for Sensat?

Our certification means that Sensat handles data (both our clients’ and our own) in accordance with international best practices in information security. This certification gives us international credibility, that we have identified the risks, assessed the implications and put in place systemised controls to limit any damage to our business, our platform services and our customers' data.

Increased reliability and security of systems and information

Improved foundation to our management processes as we continue to scale

What does Sensat’s ISO certification mean for our clients?

In short, ISO 27001 is a simple way of communicating our commitment to information security best practices to our customers, current and potential. If you are an existing client you won’t see any changes to Sensat’s platform or the way we do business. However, it does mean that anyone using Sensat can be confident that we:

Assess and mitigate all information security risks on a regular basis

Generally handle all information according to best practices

Sensat’s security management system (ISMS)

Our ISO 27001 certification means that when you choose our platform to host and visualise your data that it is safe in our hands. However, the ISO 27001 certification is just one of the many things Sensat upholds to ensure that your civil infrastructure information is safe and secure from cyber risks.

Certified to UK Government-backed scheme standards

Cyber Essentials is a Government-backed, industry-supported scheme to help organisations protect themselves against common online threats. Sensat is verified to UK Government-backed scheme standards which means we use:

Automated dependency vulnerability checks

Session hijacking/man-in-the-middle attack prevention

Regular penetration testing with an ‘IT Health Check’

Strong internal data access policies to keep your information in our platform secure from data risk

At Sensat we are focused on getting data into the right hands, but that also means ensuring that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. We understand that project owners may not want to issue the same information rights for everyone involved in your project. Using Sensat, project owners are able to navigate three levels of permissions to ensure that all site data is shared in the right way:

Admins: have full rights and as such can upload files, invite new team members and perform all other actions within the platform.

Editors: cannot invite new team members, but can perform all other actions within the platform.

Contributors: cannot upload or access or download any files and they cannot invite new team members, but they can perform all other actions within the platform.

How can you keep your infrastructure data safe?

Defend the whole supply chain from cyber threat

With often several different stakeholders within projects, there is not only a need for internal cyber security standards to be upheld, but you must also ensure that anyone with whom you decide to work withholds similar security standards to yours. This can be a difficult and lengthy assessment, which is why looking for data security accreditations, such as ISO 27001, can be a painless solution to the problem.

A Common Visualisation Environment® (CVE)

Having a single repository for data and information, such as a CVE about any given project, not only optimises business process and provides a visual golden thread for planning and coordinating a project, but by streamlining systems and processes into a single repository, you’re able to more easily secure and protect all associated information. Utilising a single platform also offers communication between previously disconnected functions or organisations, resulting in higher productivity and efficiencies and presents an opportunity for greater governance over that information.

As critical infrastructure becomes more complex and reliant on networks of connected devices and we continue to have the need to organise and secure high volumes of data, companies should turn to one secure platform, and build privacy into their data operating models by default, or partner with a company that can protect them from data breaches.

If you have any questions regarding security and our platform and how we can help you visualise your project information then please feel free to get in touch with our team at 

Sensat renews ISO 27001 certification for safeguarding data that informs our infrastructure

As we round up the year, 2022 has been a year to celebrate for Sensat. With record numbers of users onboarded to our platform, $200bn billion worth of infrastructure supported, and our Series B funding announcement—it’s been quite a year.

Here are a few milestones we have celebrated in 2022.

This year we have processed more data than ever before—a mindblowing 589,186,015,768 points to be exact, in the form of point-clouds. If placed on a straight line at 50mm from each other, our point-cloud would be 77 times the distance between the earth and the sun.

Amongst 28,000 sessions, our users accumulated 596 days of time spent using Sensat. This has shown 170% growth since last 2021. Sectors that have accumulated the most time in the platform include Rail as well as Electricity Transmission. During this time spent on the platform, 8280 files have been uploaded and shared by our users equating to 600 GB of data.

Supporting some of the UK and Europe’s largest civil infrastructure projects, Sensat invited over 2,100 new users to our platform from January to December 2022. Today leaders in the civil infrastructure industry are working with Sensat to democratise information and inform better decisions across their projects. With more users having access to site information in context, teams are making better and more holistic decisions, together.

After saying goodbye to our old Sensat HQ in 160 Old Street after two short years (which felt even shorter due to the pandemic), we moved up the road to a space which we kitted out to be a bit more ‘Sensat’. Nicknamed 'The Dog on the Moon' and designed somewhat like a coffee shop, it has comfy collaboration spaces, a coffee bar, as well as a central stage for our latest product release announcements. It already feels like home.

This year, more than ever before, our customers have been the champions of Sensat and helped to bring use cases to life. Many of them have spent time collaborating with our product and engineering teams to help build new tools that they would use to more confidently make the right decisions.

As a thank you for their efforts we held a customer day and awards at our new office filled with user workshops, cross-team knowledge-sharing sessions and presentations from some of our customers this year. A huge thank you to everyone who joined, we can’t wait to see you at our next one.

Difficult not to mention our Series B raise! In 2017 from a kitchen in Islington Co Founders 

 founded Sensat. Five years on, Sensat has raised $20.5M (£16.7m) Series B funding led by National Grid Partners, one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world.

If you want to hear from Harry and James themselves, check out our 

Sensat officially launched in Australia this year. With an arm down in Australia our team has been working to support infrastructure projects to unlock the data in the context of the real world. Despite being a new territory and being less than 6 months in, the team have already made quite a splash!

With Sensat supporting infrastructure globally here is a light map showing the projects we are supporting right now.

. From the get-go, the goal was not to fit five days' worth of work into four, but instead to prioritise the tasks which really mattered and made a difference. 

Thanks to the 4-day working week our team is all the better for it. Using that extra day the team have been making the most of it with long weekends away in Berlin to even longer holidays to Borneo, as well as learning to paraglide, spend time with family and has even given some time for a part-time Master's degree in Geographic Data Science and Spatial Analytics!

With the year fast closing, we want to thank everyone who has been a part of our journey and mission this year. Sensat is excited to welcome in the new year with new projects, new users and some exciting announcements for 2023.

2022: A record-breaking year for Sensat

From the get-go, Sensat has held sustainability central to our mission to make construction more sustainable. Following this, we are proud to announce that we have become a B Corporation! 

This certification is just one way of showing our dedication to making a positive impact. We believe that business can be a force for good, and we will continue to work hard to make Sensat a leader in sustainable business practices.

What is a B Corp, and why does it matter?

, “Our most challenging global problems cannot be solved by governments and non-profits alone. By harnessing the power of their business, B Corps commit to positively impact all stakeholders – workers, communities, customers, and our planet.”

From this, Certified B Corporations (B Corps) were born back in 2006. B Corps are organisations that meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. They use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. There are currently over 

 in more than 70 countries and over 150 industries. B Corps are for-profit companies, but differ from traditional businesses because their purpose is to create a positive impact on society, not just to make money. B Corps are leaders in sustainable and responsible business practices.

As an organisation, Sensat has always been committed to operating in a sustainable and responsible manner. We believe that businesses have a responsibility to the planet and the people they serve. So, becoming a B Corp felt like a good way for us to externally demonstrate our commitment to Sensat's core values of sustainability and social responsibility.

Kat Maclean, Sensat’s Director of Product and Sustainability Sponsor explains:

 felt like a natural fit for Sensat. The certification process has been rigorous but that has only made it all the more rewarding. The assessment really made us look even deeper internally about ourselves as a sustainable and responsible organisation, what policies we have in place today for our people and planet, but also where we can be doing more.

Reflecting on construction, it is one of the most environmentally damaging industries in the world. And at Sensat we believe that innovation and technology has the power to be a force for good. By leveraging information and collaboration teams can make better, more informed decisions and reduce waste in order to reduce the damage caused.”

In order to achieve B Corp certification an in-depth assessment process is undertaken. Across 5 categories scoring is weighted across governance, workers, community, environment and customers - with dozens of questions in each. There are 200 points up for grabs and the threshold for becoming a B Corp is 80 points. Meanwhile, the average score across all businesses is 50.9.

Sensat was evaluated by the B Corp analysts and scored 113 points, which we are incredibly proud of. Our strongest scores fell into the categories of Workers, Governance and Environment. However, where there is always room for improvement, we will continue to work hard in all areas to boost our scores, especially as we mature as an organisation. B Lab requires organisations to recertify every 3 years, which means we have a great opportunity to beat our score next time.

To those thinking about certifying… buckle up because it is a long ride!

Engage early on and regularly with all the relevant stakeholders both in advance of, and during, the certification process, as you will require input from across the business on a number of topics. The more buy-in and support you get from the business, the smoother and more efficient the certification process will be. Dividing and conquering is key!

It is important to be able to back up the claims you make as part of the process and the answers you provide. Make sure you answer all questions truthfully and transparently; greenwashing will only lead to problems when it comes to presenting evidence and verification during the later stages of the process.

Finally, it is easier to become B Corp certified when you are still a small (yet fast-growing) business laying down the building blocks of your business model, as opposed to when you have become more rigid in structure.

 Employee Environmental Engagement Survey

 to gain an understanding of our colleagues' attitudes towards sustainability (both personally and how we are doing as a company). This helped us diagnose the current state of play of environmental engagement at Sensat: what we’re currently getting right as well as where there is room for improvement.

This assessment provided us with insight into how people at Sensat value sustainability. It revealed 93% of Sensat employees have a personal interest in sustainability whilst 60% of the team responded that sustainability was a factor or motivation for joining Sensat.

We believe that to be a sustainable business, we need a holistic approach to our environmental practices. It should be woven into our business strategy, practices and culture, as opposed to performing a ‘sustainability stunt’ or ‘greenwashing’. We want sustainability to be ‘baked in’ as opposed to ‘bolted on’.

Following the survey results, we have put some additional actions in place to improve our approaches, both in terms of our immediate impact, as well as environmental culture improvements. Initiatives include:

Monthly ‘Carbon Chats’ held by our internal environmental group, which focuses on creating an open forum to learn and discuss current climate issues (e.g. fast fashion and the geographies of food).

An internal audit of all collateral to make sure that we are transparent and truthful about our environmental commitments

Joined the construction sustainability group Zero

Fully supported remote working, thereby reducing the carbon footprints of our employees

Offset all of our emissions by tracking each and every data capture’s direct emissions.

Sensat is fueled by our mission to help construction become more sustainable. We believe that although construction is one of the world’s most polluting industries, it doesn’t have to be that way. By using Sensat your teams can leverage better decision-making, reduce rework and minimise their project’s carbon footprint from the get-go.

Learn how Sensat helped Octavius to save 7.4 tonnes of CO2 as a result of reduced site visits. 

Sensat joins the B Corp revolution

Options Appraisal can be a lengthy process when determining an optimal design route for new transmission lines, or location for a substation. Traditionally this has required multiple teams flicking between sheets, maps and applications. However, today teams are starting to explore digital twin technology as a way to expedite this process and make better first-time decisions.

Learn how digital twin technologies are set to revolutionise optioneering.

The optioneering of electricity transmission lines is a complex process that can be hindered by several challenges including

The lack of standardisation between data sources

When assessing design options for electricity transmission, the more context that can be used to inform plans, the better. However, the different file types, software licences and gatekeepers to information can make it difficult to assess multiple design options for electricity transmission.

Assessing multiple design options can be time-consuming, particularly due to the back-and-forth often required between designs. It is important to verify and validate the results within the real world to ensure that the best decision is made.

When you’re working towards strengthening an options appraisal for your project stakeholder buying is essential. A project team will need to consider the needs of landowners, environmental groups and local residents in order to get stakeholders on side. And, managing the expectations and objectives of these different stakeholders requires clear communication channels.

Digital twin revolutionising optioneering

Digital twins are being adopted in numerous different situations across infrastructure, but their potential use in optioneering is only just starting to be explored as an application. Digital twin platforms are enabling expedited optioneering by helping teams to gain a better understanding of how different options would interact with the real world. Using a base map of reality created using autonomous data capture methods such as UAVs, project teams can overlay potential designs and visually inspect them in the context of the real world as well as other data sets such as land boundaries or flood risks. Using this holistic view of the proposed design options in the context of reality, teams are more thoroughly exploring different scenarios to find the best possible option from a desktop.

Using digital twin software you can find the most efficient way to move power from Point A to Point B without the need to go back and forth to the site. From a single desktop platform, you can explore all of the different options to make the best decisions and balance technical, environmental, socio-economic and cost impact.

10 Benefits of leveraging digital twins in optioneering

Reduce risk and uncertainty from your desktop by layering and visualising all of your contextual data in one view you can reduce the risks and uncertainties associated with missing information.

Benefit from greater flexibility in uploading and testing different scenarios within the environment.

See options in the context of the real world:

 Input routing and siting options to see exactly how designs interact with the environment.

Viewpoints can be created automatically by digital twin platforms. For example, to assess how a design would affect the view from someone's house would no longer need specialist CAD drawers to draw up the viewpoint. Plans can be understood by the stakeholder and explored within a 3D environment.

The consulting teams can use the digital twin platform and its proposed designs to highlight risks early so that the project can progress faster.

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