OCU Group processes over 2,000 weekly site permits with Cogna

About

OCU Group is one of the UK's main service providers of energy transition, utilities, and digital infrastructure. The company supports major operators like Scottish Power, Virgin Media O2, and United Utilities across complex projects. Its turnkey solutions span the full project lifecycle, from initial engineering design and planning through construction, commissioning, and ongoing maintenance.

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Challenge

Conducting thousands of risk assessments created manual overhead and introduced compliance risk

The UK's infrastructure sector operates under stringent environmental regulations, particularly around waste management during on-site excavation. Historically, determining the correct disposal route for excavated materials required lab testing.

Everything changed when regulators adopted the Street Works UK: Material Classification Protocol and new Excavation Arisings Sampling Requirements. Instead of requiring lab testing, the Protocol permitted visual on-site waste classification alongside detailed "desktop" risk assessments — site analyses using existing data like land use records and geological details.

OCU Group saw this regulatory shift as the key to smoother safety and environmental evaluations, and targeted visual inspections.

To capture this opportunity, they first needed to streamline their risk assessment workflows. Because their existing site data was scattered across Street Manager, internal databases, and asset maps, building auditable assessments would have required hours of manual work.

With OCU Group's scale — processing more than 2,000 on-site jobs each week — that challenge multiplied. Lisa Thewsey, OCU Group's Head of Street Works for North and Northwest, estimated that manually assessing safety would require hiring and training 15-30 additional team members.

Another complication was navigating a patchwork of client-specific requirements. "Our clients have unique specifications, such as distinct risk assessment formatting and tailored KPI benchmarks," explains Sophie Stephens, Group Head of Sustainability and Environment. Handling this level of customization manually would increase the chance of data inconsistencies, impacting compliance and stakeholder relationships.

Recognizing these complexities, OCU Group formed a working team to explore solutions to centralize site data and generate compliant, client-ready risk assessments. This group quickly ruled out time-consuming in-house builds and standard compliance software that couldn't suit their unique systems and client needs. The best path forward, they realized, was a custom-built application.

They shared this idea with OCU Group's Chief Information Officer, who instantly thought of Cogna. Having worked with their team before, he knew that their AI build engine could create the unified, automated site assessment workflow that OCU Group needed for seamless compliance.

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"We had a massive admin task ahead of us. It would have taken an army just to churn through our site data. We needed an external partner to streamline our compliance workflows without this resource drain." — Lisa Thewsey, Head of Street Works for North and Northwest at OCU Group

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Solution

Achieving environmental compliance at scale with a purpose-built AI solution

To start, the working group laid out their operational needs, after which Cogna embedded itself directly within OCU Group's Street Works and Contract Support teams. By collaborating with those who would use the system every day, the Cogna team learned both the technical requirements and the nuances of streetworks terminology, risk assessment workflows, and client expectations.

Armed with this operational knowledge, Cogna's AI-powered platform delivered a custom Desktop Risk Assessment (DRA) application — right on time to meet the upcoming regulatory deadline.

The application pulls current hazard information from OCU Group's internal databases, Street Manager, and select external providers, unifying it with geological site records and permit data. As a result, every time a client submits a job — whether it's a major project or a routine repair — the company's Contract Support team access relevant site details in seconds.

This information is fed directly into the DRA tool's algorithm, generating a comprehensive desktop risk assessment based on the regulatory standards. This analysis helps OCU Group's operational teams determine the risk of contaminated excavation arisings, supporting upcoming on-site waste classification assessments.

After review and approval, finalized risk assessments are saved and available to share upon request. When a client reaches out about sample details, Lisa's Street Works team sends formatted PDFs tailored to their specific requirements.

Using this information, OCU Group's teams conduct thorough on-site investigations following established protocols. Recorded findings are automatically added to the corresponding job entry, ensuring a detailed audit trail that validates risk predictions against actual site conditions.

Because Cogna stays hands-on at every stage, the application is continuously refined, and OCU Group receives near-instant responses to questions. Lisa shares, "Cogna's team goes above and beyond. They have such strong relationships with our teams." This collaborative approach creates a deep understanding of teams' operational needs, enabling targeted changes that align with existing workflows.

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"On day one of deploying Cogna's DRA solution, risk assessments started coming through hour by hour, each fully compliant with current regulations and tailored to our clients." — Sophie Stephens, Group Head of Sustainability and Environment at OCU Group

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Results

OCU Group saves 500 hours per week by automating desktop risk assessments with Cogna

With Cogna, OCU Group now have a purpose-built DRA solution that delivers automated environmental compliance at scale. This system eliminates countless hours of manual data analysis and fosters client trust through reliable, auditable risk assessments.

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• 500 hours saved per week on desktop risk assessments
• 83% planning time reduction
• 2,000-4,000 permits processed weekly

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With OCU Group's public safety and regulatory standing well supported, their teams are working with Cogna to further optimize their DRA solution. One feature they're particularly excited about is multi-week assessment filters, which will help them bulk-export reports for specific periods when regulators are conducting quarterly reviews.

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"Cogna makes life so much easier. It gives us and our clients peace of mind, knowing the information we're providing is accurate and compliant." — Lisa Thewsey, Head of Street Works for North and Northwest at OCU Group