Vote for the 2009 Green Guru client

Simon Cox

Since joining ProLogis Developments in 2006, Simon Cox has played a key role in the creation of the company’s sustainability strategy in the UK and Europe, evolving a standard approach to environmental stewardship and consistently delivering BREEAM Excellent and EPC A-rated buildings. Schemes on which he has been client-side project manager include a 624,000 sq ft distribution facility for Sainsbury’s in Northampton designed to cut regulated energy use through passive and active measures such as a tri-generation CCHP plant for heating, cooling and power. The BREEAM Excellent building is one of the first projects in the world to be subject to a detailed carbon audit, culminating in the measurement, reduction and offsetting of all embodied carbon emissions by 110%. Another of Cox’s projects is a 250,000 sq ft carbon-neutral facility for the Royal Mail, an EPC A-rated/BREEAM Excellent building that achieves a reduction in regulated energy use of 77% compared with existing facilities, while embodied carbon in the structure has been reduced and offset to zero. Cox is also engaged on the development of an exemplar teaching academy for sustainable development on ProLogis land in Dartford.

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Dan Epstein

Dan Epstein has championed sustainability throughout his career, notably in recent years at the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), where he is head of sustainability, and English Partnerships, where he was previously in charge of environmental policy before joining the ODA. He has relentlessly pushed to ensure that sustainability is treated as core to the delivery of the Olympics, rather than a mere “add-on” – which could easily have happened, given the extremely challenging budgetary and programme constraints faced by the London 2012 Olympic programme. As head of sustainability at English Partnerships before joining the ODA, Epstein took a similarly enthusiastic approach and was key to delivering policy and programme progress for the organisation. He has a direct and relentless approach and refuses to accept that technical or commercial obstacles are insurmountable. Epstein is also often personally involved in generating creative solutions.

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Avril Rodgers

As head of the BSF programme for the London Borough of Camden, Avril Rodgers’ visionary approach and passion for sustainable design have prompted her to take on not only fellow councillors and the government PFI process for delivering schools but also contractor teams and consultants, from whom she has demanded that they raise their game. Rodgers has steered and commissioned a strongly articulated brief for the schools building and improvement programme in Camden, with hard and fast targets for bidders to respond to in their proposals, and she has never backed down. Despite all the cost cutting and fudging inherent in the bidding process, the brief has asked for transparent commitments to design strategies and costs, making it clear where a sustainable approach is an add-on or inherent in the concept. Rodgers is enthusiastic, well-informed, challenging and dedicated to her mission.

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Alan Yates

Alan Yates has taken a lead role in driving forward the green agenda in UK social housing for over 10 years. He led the Green Futures initiative established by the Black Country Housing Group as director of business development and established an environmental consultancy service, e2s. In 1998 he pioneered a Housing Forum demonstration project incorporating an ecopod – a real-life example of green technologies. As director of regeneration at Accord, Yates embarked on initiatives including work with architect Bill Dunster using the Zero Energy Development or ZED principles to construct a scheme incorporating a biomass boiler, the first sedum roof in the Midlands, super-insulation and other green features. Yates also leads a partnership with a Norwegian house manufacturer importing high-quality, low-carbon housing, an initiative that has won the Chartered Institute of Housing Best Practice Award. Yates has actively led staff and board members at Accord to achieve the ISO 14001 environmental standard and helped the housing association become the first in the UK to achieve EMAS. He is also chairman of the Sustainable Housing Action Programme.

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Janet Kidner

Before joining Lend Lease as head of sustainability in 2008, Janet Kidner was a founding partner and associate director of dcarbon8, an innovative carbon and sustainability solutions company, where she was integral to the development of the business and responsible for running the consulting division with a strong client base in the UK property sector. Before that she worked at low-carbon consulting engineers Battle McCarthy, where she helped the only two property sector participants in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme with their reduction commitments. At Lend Lease, Kidner has developed a 10-pillar sustainability strategy for the company, including an aspiration for all Lend Lease buildings in the UK to be zero net carbon, water and waste-to-landfill by 2016, with incremental annual targets. Her mission is to build sustainability capability into the business and she has developed sustainability roles and responsibilities and an individual sustainability training plan for every role in the business. Kidner also sits on the UK Green Building Council Policy Committee and the BPF Sustainability Committee and is working with the UN Environment Programme on developing common carbon metrics for the sector.

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