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Jacqueline Diaz-Nieto, Associate SuDS Engineer, Environmental Protection Group, Dr Louise Walker Award for Outstanding Contribution to SuDS Winner 2025

Reflections on a SuDS Journey

This award means a lot to me, especially as I found out about Louise’s sad passing after a disappointing work week. Hearing Louise’s news really helped me put things into perspective and pick myself up with clarity of thought on the next steps. As another fellow Colombian female role model, Shakira, said on a BBC interview, “a fall isn’t the end, but the beginning of an even better journey”.

I must confess, when I won this weighty award for “Outstanding contribution to SuDS”, my first thoughts were ones of self-doubt “What do I know about SuDS? Let alone, what outstanding contribution have I made?”.  I’ve just been striving to copy what I’ve learnt from the greats in SuDS (including many of the previous SuDS Champions) and trying to do what they’ve been consistently contributing for years now.

Despite a frustrating lack of progress in making SuDS mandatory, I can see, looking back that SuDS have come a long way in my lifetime. I remember excitedly explaining what this new-ish concept of SuDS was to my husband as I embarked on a PhD in 2006, loosely entitled “Brownfields, Climate Change and SuDS”. Back then SuDS was something associated with soap and a bad thing, that needed to be carefully rinsed off when doing the dishes! Now, my teenage daughters come home and tell me that they learnt about SuDS, ‘that thing that Mum talks about at work and points out at every opportunity when we’re out and about’, in their geography lesson at school!

My career journey has given me the privilege to work with, and get to know younger professionals, fresh out of university, with aspirations to make a difference and build a sustainable future. They inspire me, and through conducting interviews, I am privileged enough to witness what motivates the next generation, and learn about how, in many cases, the candidates excitedly talk about their dissertations in the topic of SuDS and at the prospect of getting to design and deliver the real thing. It also gives me great work satisfaction, working for EPG, to be in a position to be able to offer employment opportunities in the area of SuDS, that meets the desires and aspirations of young professionals.

This just leaves me to thank Susdrain for providing me with this opportunity to reflect and look back, and to the Susdrain community for remaining optimistic with their relentless efforts to keep sustainability and sustainable drainage on the agenda and front of mind. Susdrain, and all the brilliant minds that make up the susdrain community, really have provided the inspiration, motivation and role models that have played a significant part in my SuDS journey. Let’s continue to make sustainable drainage ‘business as usual’ in our mission for greener and more sustainable development and growth.