All the winners and highly commended entries from last night's prestigious BusinessGreen Leaders Awards
Last night over 400 top green business leaders, sustainability executives, investors, campaigners, and politicians gathered at The Brewery in central London for the 12th annual BusinessGreen Leaders Awards.
It was an inspiring and moving evening, that recognised the hundreds of fantastic businesses and individuals across the UK who are striving to advance the net zero emissions and build and greener and healthier economy for all.
Here are all the winners and highly commended entries from the night:
Consultancy of the Year
Anthesis Group
In a hugely competitive category, the judges were impressed by the breadth of Anthesis Group's offering, the huge impact of its projects, and its ability to execute against its ambitious expansion plans.
Highly Commended: JLL
Highly Commended: Carbon Intelligence
Communications Agency of the Year
Seahorse Environmental
It was a very close call in a hugely competitive category, but in the end Seahorse Environmental edged it with the judges this year thanks to a series of vibrant and impactful communication campaigns, and its invaluable efforts to raise awareness of the pollution crisis afflicting our rivers.
Highly commended: Greenhouse Communications
Highly commended: PLMR
Manufacturer of the Year
Ibstock plc
Ibstock won over the judges with their highly innovative approach to slashing emissions in the high carbon world of brick manufacturing, where the company has pioneered a raft of new approaches and provided a crucial template for others to follow.
Highly commended: Meryl Medical
ESG Investor of the Year
Gresham House
In a wide-ranging and competitive category, the judges chose to recognize Gresham House for its far-reaching sustainability policies and hugely impactful investments in low carbon infrastructure, ambitious tree-planting programmes, and new energy technologies.
Highly Commended: Green Angel Syndicate
Highly Commended: Zouk Capital
Energy Efficiency Project of the Year
Lamington Group - room2 Chiswick
There were so many great projects in this category, but Lamington Group edged it thanks to the range of innovative technologies deployed in its trailblazing net zero hotel and the model it has provided for others in the industry to learn from.
Highly commended: UK Power Networks - Communiheat
Renewable Energy Project of the Year
Solarsense - Avon Fire and Rescue Service Project
The judges were hugely impressed by Avon Fire and Rescue Service's decision to turn a climate emergency declaration into real world action and swiftly deliver the roll out of a host of integrated clean technologies across its estate.
Highly Commended: Bath Abbey - Footprint Project
Highly Commended: Ripple Energy - Graig Fatha Wind Farm
Green Building Project of the Year
Willmott Dixon - University of Warwick's Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building (IBRB)
There were so many great projects in this category, but in the end Willmott Dixon won out with this landmark project to deliver one of the most environmentally sustainable academic buildings in the UK, boasting both green design principles, sustainable materials, and cutting-edge clean technologies.
Highly Commended: Barratt Developments PLC - Z House
Highly Commended: FORE Partnership - Cadworks
Highly Commended: Lamington Group - room2 Chiswick
Nature-based Project of the Year
Palladium and National Parks - Revere Project
There were so many great projects in this category, but the judges were won over by the hugely ambitious and appropriately named Revere Project with its vision to mobilise much needed investment in protecting and restoring nature across our treasured national parks.
Highly Commended: CGI and Project Seagrass - GeoData360 Earth Observation Platform Project
Highly Commended: OVO - Tree-ly Amazing Journey
Transport Project of the Year
Octopus Energy - Electric Juice
The judges were massively impressed by Octopus Energy's Electric Juice project, which is proving so effective at both driving demand for electric vehicles and keeping the growing numbers of EV drivers on the go.
Highly commended: GRIDSERVE - Electric Highway
Highly commended: Slow Ways - National Walking Network
Highly commended: Zenobē - EV Bus Rollout
Circular Economy Project of the Year
JPA Workspaces
In yet another highly competitive category JPA Workspaces edged it with the judges thanks to the company's continued expansion and inherently sustainable approach to a furniture and furnishings that is helping to slash its clients resource use.
Highly Commended: Circular Computing
Employee Engagement Campaign of the Year
NatWest Group - Giki Zero Campaign
There were lots of great entries in this category, but the judges were won over by NatWest Group and its works with Giki Zero to engage employees right across the banking giant with the many steps they can take to curb their carbon footprint.
Highly Commended: Bupa - eco-Disruptive Programme
Highly Commended: Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation - Wash & Squash
Highly Commended: Visit Scotland - Pawprint App
Marketing/Advertising Campaign of the Year
Carlsberg - WWF Partnership Campaign
There were many great campaigns to choose from, but Carlsberg and WWF were hailed by the judges for a beautiful and highly engaging campaign, which helped get the issue of seagrass restoration in front of an entirely new audience.
Highly commended: LeasePlan UK - Electric Moments
Highly commended: PensionBee - Fossil Fuel Free Plan
Young Sustainability Executive of the Year
Jenny Hughes - Stantec
The judges were hugely impressed by Jenny's fantastic track record at Stantec, the wide range of different projects she has worked on, and her brilliant work promoting sustainable STEM skills to the next generation.
Highly commended: Lucie Peralta Agass - OVO
Sustainability Executive of the Year
After much deliberation the judges decided to honour Frederika Klaren as Sustainability Executive of the Year in recognition of her trail-blazing work at Polestar to both understand and drastically reduce the carbon footprint of the EV sector and its fast-expanding supply chains.
Fredrika Klarén - Polestar
Highly Commended: Sue Williams - Whatley Manor
Sustainability Team of the Year
Polestar - Sustainability Team
Polestar secured its second win of the evening in a highly competitive category, as the judges were hugely impressed by the team's work to track and reduce the carbon emissions associated with the company's pioneering electric vehicles.
Highly commended: NatWest Group - Retail Climate Team
The Net Zero Strategy of the Year
Lamington Group - Net Zero Roadmap
The breadth and depth of Lamington Group's net zero strategy, coupled with the catalysing impact it could hopefully have on the wider hospitality, won over the judges.
Highly commended: Global Cement and Concrete Association - Net Zero Roadmap
Highly commended: Spire Healthcare and Inenco - Decarbonisation Strategy
Entrepreneur of the Year
Aniruddha Sharma - Carbon Clean
There are so many inspiring entrepreneurs working across the green economy, but Carbon Clean's Aniruddha Sharma stood out this year for his work driving the development and delivery of carbon capture and reuse technology that could have a genuinely transformational impact on multiple sectors.
Highly commended: Amanda Lyne - ULEMCo Ltd
Highly commended: George Davies - For Peat's Sake
Highly commended: Namrata Sandhu - Vaayu
Small Business of the Year
Signol
In one of the most competitive categories to date, Signol impressed the judges with the proven carbon savings delivered by its innovative behaviour change software and its ambitious plans to help unlock emissions and cost savings across multiple sectors.
Highly commended: Net Purpose
Highly commended: Sero
Highly commended: WeFlex
Innovation of the Year
N2S - Bioleaching Solution
The Innovation of the Year is always one of the most competitive categories, but this year N2S won out with the judges thanks to its pioneering work to harness advanced biotechnology to tackle the seemingly intractable problem of electronic waste and the huge environmental footprint that comes with it.
Highly Commended: Power Roll - Solar Film Technology
Politician of the Year
Alok Sharma, MP
COP26 President Alok Sharma was moved to tears by the immense effort and commitment it took to deliver the Glasgow Climate Pact, and in so doing lay the foundations for the next critical phase of global decarbonisation efforts.
He would be the first to admit that the success of the COP26 Climate Summit in no way guarantees that the necessary progress will be made in the coming years. But thanks to a genuinely remarkable feat of diplomacy, he helped signal to the world that the commitment to global climate action is stronger than it has ever been and delivered an agreement that many independent observers agree was as good as it could possibly have been.
Moreover, throughout his stewardship of the COP26 he repeatedly helped showcase how the technologies and business models we need to build a net zero emission economy are both ready for mainstream adoption and hold the key to a new era of genuinely sustainable development.
Leader of the Year
Toddington Harper - GRIDSERVE
There are so many leaders in this space, but judges were hugely impressed by Toddington Harper's work both engineering a breakout year for GRIDSERVE and for the vocal role he continues to play in driving forward the switch to electric mobility and a new era of clean infrastructure.
Highly Commended: Polly Billington - UK100
Company of the Year
GRIDSERVE Sustainable Energy
The judges were hugely impressed by a remarkable year for GRIDSERVE Sustainable Energy as it rapidly expanded and upgraded its charging network and continued to deliver on its immensely ambitious clean infrastructure vision.
Highly commended: Octopus Energy
Lifetime Achievement Award
Pete Betts
Pete Betts, CBE, has been a career civil servant and climate diplomat, who for 10 critical years from 2008 to 2018 worked as Director of International Climate Change for the UK government, while also leading a team to scale up of public and private climate finance in developing countries.
In addition, he served as the EU's lead climate negotiator, during which he led the EU's negotiating team both in the run up to and during the Paris Climate Summit.
In the words of then Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd, Pete's "work, persistence and sheer dogged determination" made the 2015 Paris Agreement possible - an agreement, lest we forget, that has laid the foundations for the world's last best hope of averting an era of ever worsening climate catastrophes and building a genuinely sustainable economy for all.
However, the simple facts of Pete's CV do not even begin to do justice to his many achievements, nor his quietly influential role in advancing the green economy. Many of Pete's friends and colleagues spoke to us of his inspirational leadership, generous mentorship, and remarkable kindness, which remains evident no matter how often he describes himself as a 'curmudgeon'.
Since leaving the civil service in 2018, Pete has continued to share his expertise with a host of businesses and influential organisations from across the climate movement, including the Climate Change Committee, the International Energy Agency, Chatham House, and many others.
Just last year he spoke at BusinessGreen's Net Zero Festival and gave a memorable and remarkably prescient speech on the challenges faced by the then imminent Glasgow Climate Summit and the very real progress it could yet achieve. Like so many of his speeches, it was filled with guarded optimism and sobering realism, as well as the razor-sharp intellect and wry sense of humour that made him such an effective diplomat.
Sadly, earlier this year Pete was diagnosed with a serious brain tumour, for which he's been having treatment, but which he knows he can't fight forever. Or, as he put it in an email chain updating friends and allies: 'To paraphrase Emperor Hirohito, my health situation has developed not necessarily to my advantage'.
Since then Pete's emails to his many friends and colleagues have been both moving and inspiring, heartfelt and laugh out loud funny. He has written of his immense love for his wife Fiona, his need to step out of his "curmudgeonly comfort zone", and how he hopes to spend the time he has left.
He also suggested he would welcome the chance to deliver a talk reflecting on his work, particularly given it would be "in a context where it will be terrible bad taste for anyone to disagree with me".
So, we asked Pete and his beloved wife Fiona to join us this evening to celebrate your many successes, accept his lifetime achievement award, and, if he was feeling up to it, say a few words in a context where, as he said, it really would be terrible bad taste to disagree with him. Thankfully, he said 'yes'.
