Sustainable Consultant of the Year

Winner

BioRegional Consulting

Probably best known for the BedZED eco village in Sutton, south London, BioRegional Consulting stood out for the diversity of its work. As well as its groundbreaking efforts in eco housing it has also been involved in sustainable forestry, sustainable farming and recycling. It uses the One Planet Living framework on many of its projects. This is a joint initiative between the firm and the WWF based on the 10 guiding principles of sustainability, which include using local and sustainable materials and fair trade principles. It is currently completing its seventh project with English Partnerships in 18 months, one of which will act as a Carbon Challenge site. On top of this it is a consultant for waste action group WRAP’s Construction Programme and is developing an indicator of the future recyclability of products and projects. All together it demonstrated a very committed entry.

Highly commended

Faber Maunsell

Faber Maunsell’s sustainability credentials aren’t just demonstrated in its projects. They are also embodied in its training and recruitment. It invests 2.6% of its turnover in training, which includes mandatory sustainability content. It has also launched its Structured Training Excellence Programme, which encourages young people to join the industry and facilitates this by sponsoring them through their education. The firm anticipates recruiting between 50 and 100 applicants each year through the initiative.

Runners up

Atkins and Faithful + Gould

Most engineering consultants will have been at the receiving end of value engineering, which sees many of the sustainability features stripped out of their projects before they get off the drawing board. But this joint entry seeks to rectify this problem. Faithful + Gould, the cost consultancy arm of the Atkins group, is working hand in glove with the design teams to make sure cost and best value are properly analysed and presented to clients to enable them to make truly informed decisions.

Building Design Partnership

BDP might already have a track record as a multidisciplinary team keen to embrace the challenges of sustainable development, but it is still working hard on raising the awareness both within the firm and externally. Among the events and conferences it took part in this year was an evening talk at London Sustainabilty Week, entitled ‘An inconvenient spoof or absolute truth?’. On top of this it is a member of the Islington Climate Change Partnership, with a strong local focus on sustainability in the borough where the firm is based.

White Young Green

In 2005 White Young Green established its Sustainability Bureau to provide specialist advice in the built environment regarding energy efficiency, planning and environmental impact assessment. This year in response to concerns about security of energy supply it launched WYG Energy, a one stop service providing energy solutions and support both within the firm and externally. Sustainability is championed by the firm’s board and practiced at all levels throughout the organisation.

WSP Group

WSP has been busy strengthening its design capabilities in the last year. As well as the acquisition of Lincolne Scott, one of Australia’s leading M&E and environmental engineers, it also bought Environmental Strategies Consulting in the US and three other specialist environmental businesses in Australia in a bid to increase its global environmental consultancy services. Closer to home it has launched its own programme to measure the carbon emissions of its business operations and highlight opportunities to tackle climate change.

Sponsor

Sponsored by Isg

ISG delivers award winning new build, refurbishment and fit out services internationally. With a wealth of experience across a variety of sectors, locations and project values up to £100 million, we offer a tailored service to every individual client’s needs.

The social, environmental and economic impact (people, planet and prosperity) of our business has been of paramount importance to ISG since its inception. We are currently implementing an all-encompassing programme that will look at how we operate and ways in which we can influence others.

ISG has chosen to sponsor the Sustainability Awards as a statement of our continuing commitment to addressing sustainability.