Sustainability Champion Award

Winner

Trevor Butler, Building Design Partnership

This was a closely fought award but in the end the winner proved himself by his allround capability including his natural leadership in low carbon design, his ability to communicate this to other design professionals and clients and his impressive dedication to raising the awareness of sustainability through talks and conferences. Since joining BDP in 2001 to set up its sustainability group, Trevor Butler has managed to put his low carbon imprint on a number of high profile schemes by acting as the interface between clients and design teams. Among his recent achievements has been the development of a carbon neutral methodology to be applied to a range of schemes, called the three Ms of carbon neutrality - measure, minimize and mitigate. The judges were also impressed by his communication skills and his commitment to raising awareness of sustainability issues. This he continues to do through his involvement in talks, conferences and London’s Sustainability Weeks and through acting as a consultant to the RIBA, CIBSE, GLA and the BIFM groups.

Runners-up

Alan Cochrane, Inspace

Alan Cochrane has achieved a lot this year. He has influenced projects at Inspace so that 75% now have renewable energy strategies as standard, has developed an 8% reduction in CO2 emissions from the firm’s sites and offices and has halved the running cost of a typical Inspace Partnerships new home in the last six years. On top of all this he is in the third year of his MA in sustainable development.

Sarah Jeffcote, One Planet Products

Sarah Jeffcote successfully launched One Planet Products, the members-owned bulk buying club that aims to make it easier and cheaper for members to purchase high quality, sustainable building products and materials. By identifying suitable products, the buying club enables members to select proven sustainable products quickly without the need to carry out time-consuming research. As well as building the successful business and looking for new areas to expand into, Sarah has been keen to share the knowledge built up at industry conferences and education events.

Christoph Morbitzer, HLM Architects

Christopher Morbitzer impressed the judges through his project-focused attention to sustainability. As head of HLM Environmental he has developed innovative, sustainable design solutions and is an advocate of taking lessons from overseas. Examples of this are evident in a recent housing design based on the German Passivhaus system which will be showcased at the Highland Housing Fair in 2008 as well as factfinding trips to countries like Japan, where he saw PV zero carbon mass custom homes. We’ll wait to see the results.

Tom Woolley, Rachel Bevan Architects

Tom Woolley impressed the judges with his approach to natural building materials and methods. In particular his role as chair of the Hemp Lime Construction Products Association, a position he has held for the last 18 months, has enabled him to bring various industry players together to ensure substantial investment and education initiatives, while raising the organisation’s profile with large manufacturing companies. His book, Natural Building, has also helped to make natural methods and materials become more mainstream and given them a wider audience.

Rachel Woolliscroft, Wates Group

Wates already impressed the judges with its Zero Waste Programme and it has been Rachel’s role, as group sustainability champion, to drive this groundbreaking sustainable practice throughout the company and gain collaboration among the firm’s peer group to achieve significant progress on sustainability. As the results of her actions show, she is changing the face of the company and helping to drive sustainability up the agenda in a targeted and focused way.

Sponsor

Sponsored by Kingspan

Kingspan Insulated Panels is a leading manufacturer of insulated roof, wall and façade systems suitable for all types of building purposes and applications.

It is in the long-term interests of businesses to act responsibly towards the environment and the communities in which they operate and sustainability is becoming a key driver for customers who are typically involved across the whole commercial & industrial sectors.

Kingspan Insulated Panels is fully committed to developing, researching and investing in environmental standards and practices so as to install a framework for activities, product design, services and decision-making that supports sustainability.