
The winners of awards which celebrated research, innovation, sustainability and enterprise in the built environment have been announced by Leeds Beckett University.
Over a hundred industry and academic professionals gathered at the Park Plaza hotel in Leeds for the inaugural RISE awards (#RISEawards). Organised by the Leeds Sustainability Institute and the Centre for Knowledge Exchange at Leeds Beckett University and sponsored by Saint-Gobain UK, the awards celebrated the most pioneering sustainability research and development in the industry.
Presented by Professor Chris Gorse, Director of the Leeds Sustainability Institute at Leeds Beckett, the awards brought industry and academic bodies together for the first time, to reward innovation across eight different categories representing the four key strands of the RISE Awards; Research, Innovation, Sustainability and Enterprise. In a change from the usual application process, entrants were encouraged to use their creativity and create a one to two page visual poster outlining their project, product or initiative.
Speaking about the awards, Professor Chris Gorse, Director of the Leeds Sustainability Institute at Leeds Beckett University, said: “The construction industry faces a huge challenge to become more energy efficient and sustainable, reducing the built environment’s contribution to climate change.
The RISE initiative has brought together leading construction partners, all with a keen desire to take the construction sector forward, forging a more sustainable and innovate industry. The level of creativity demonstrated in the entries to ensure products and buildings are successful in the field was exceptional. Those commended and whom have achieved a RISE award have set a high benchmark on which we can build.
“The strength and diversity of approaches to sustainable design and construction means there is much to build on. We have set our journey to become, not only a Centre for Knowledge Exchange at Leeds Beckett, but one of excellence where the potential that can be achieved through industry and academic engagement is recognised. Being part of the celebrations that recognise those pushing at the boundaries was an honour.”
Winners and those highly commended on the night were from a range of businesses; from architects to contractors to product designers and construction consultancies. Those who triumphed included Arc Building Solutions in the Field Research category for their innovative Eaves Insulator product, Leeds Environmental Design Associates in the Design, Innovation and Creativity category and BAM Construction who walked away with the behavioural change gong for their project addressing the energy performance gap on their builds. Innovative local developer CITU also picked up yet another award to add to their ever expanding trophy cabinet for their Little Kelham project, this time in the Sustainable Development category. Special awards were also given out on the night to Rockpanel, Yeme Architects and Saint-Gobain. Congratulations to all the winners (a full list can be found below)
The awards were a huge success and a fitting grand finale to the Sustainable Ecological Engineering Design (SEEDS) conference held at Leeds Beckett. This international conference explored how buildings and spaces are designed to reduce negative impacts on the environment, with keynote speakers, workshops and presentations focusing on how to address the balance between the built and the natural environment.

Tom Cox, Research and Development Manager at Saint-Gobain UK added: “Saint-Gobain UK was delighted to support the first ever SEEDS Conference and RISE awards with its vision to support and promote productive academic and industry research partnerships. Our team had an excellent evening which was a fitting celebration to two highly enjoyable days of learning, debate and discussion. We will continue to work closely with the forward-thinking team at Leeds Sustainability Institute in the future.”
#RISEAWARDS WINNERS
AWARD 1 – Field & Laboratory Research
Winner
ARC Building Solutions
Highly commended
Mott MacDonald
AWARD 2 – Product & Element Interface
Winner
Bauman Lyons Architects
Highly commended
Saint-Gobain
AWARD 3 – New Technologies
Winner
Saint-Gobain
Highly commended
C-Probe Systems Limited
AWARD 4 – Design, Innovation & Creativity
Winner
LEDA
Highly commended
Rockpanel
AWARD 5 – Sustainable Development & Energy
Winner
Citu
Highly commended
Green Building Store
AWARD 6 – Heritage Award for Restoration & Retrofit
Winner
Green Building Store
Highly commended
C-Probe Systems Limited
Highly commended
Studio Polpo
AWARD 7 – Behavioural Change
Winner
BAM Construction
Highly commended
Rockpanel
Highly commended
Morgan Sindall
AWARD 8 -Enterprise
Winner
Mott MacDonald
Highly commended
ARC Building Solutions
Special RISE Awards
1. Chair’s Award for Most Innovative & Sustainable Approach to Restoration
Winner
Yeme Architects
Highly commended
Studio Polpo
2. CKE Special Award
Winner
Rockpanel
Highly commended
Collett and Sons
3. Arts, Environment & Technology Special Award
Winner
Wakefield & District Housing
Highly commended
Rex Procter & Partners (Energy Services)
4. Leeds Sustainability Institute Award
Winner
Hill
Highly commended
A-one+ Integrated Highway Services
SEEDS Academic Award for Best Poster
Winner
Beverley Clifton Morris and Liverpool John Moores University
Highly commended
A-one+ Integrated Highway Services
SEEDS Academic Award for Best Technical Poster
Winner
Mott MacDonald
Highly commended
Martin Fletcher, Felix Thomas and Adrian Appleyard
SEEDS Conference Awards
1. CIOB Award for Best Academic Paper
Winner
Richard Jack, Dennis Loveday, David Allinson and Kevin Lomas
Highly commended
Joe Williams, Doctor Mike Lawrence and Professor Pete Walker
Highly commended
Fiona Fylan, Chris Gorse and David Glew
2. CIOB Award for Best Technical Paper
Winner
Guillaume Lethé
Highly commended
Francesco Pomponi, Poorang A.E. Piroozfar and Eric R.P. Farr
Highly commended
Dave Farmer, Chris Gorse, Dominic Miles-Shenton, Matthew Brooke-Peat and Calum Cuttle
3. LSI Award for Most Pragmatic Approach to Sustainability
Winner
Jody Harris, Andy Dougill and Alice Owen
Highly commended
Rachel Huxley
Highly commended
Ian Adrian Fletcher
4. LSI Award for Contribution to the Field
Winner
Fisayo Caleb Sangogboye, Olaf Droegehorn and Jari Porras
Highly commended
Iqbal Ahmed, Alexandra Klimova, Eric Rondeau and Andrei Rybin
Highly commended
Paul Chatterton
5. LSI Award for Paper Addressing a Developing Need
Winner
Oriel Kenny, Isobelle Logan, Andrew Swan and Jono West
Highly commended
Chuma Sineke and John Smallwood
Highly commended
Anthony J. Smith, Martin Pritchard and Alan Edmondson
6. LSI Award for Paper Addressing a Social Need
Winner
Martin Pritchard, Alan Edmondson, Tom Craven and Theresa Mkandawire
Highly commended
Richard Cozzens
Highly commended
Kevin Thomas and Ian Dickinson
7. SEEDS Award for Contribution to the Built Environment
Winner
Sara Lilley, Gill Davidson, Barry J. Gledson and Zaid Alwan
Highly commended
Fidelis Emuze
Highly commended
James Parker
8.SEEDS Award for Contribution to the Natural Environment
Winner
Agnieszka Knera, James Parker and Alan Poxon
Highly commended
Nicola Caravaggio and Martina Iorio
Highly commended
Hasan Hamouda, Nadine Abu-Shaaban and Eman Al-Swaity
9. Chair’s Award
Winner
Christopher Allen and Katharina Crafford
Highly commended
Erica Marshall, Julia Steinberger, Tim Foxon and Valerie Dupont
Highly commended
Benjamin A J Martin, Dawa Masih, Benson Lau, Paolo Beccarelli and John Chilton
JUST: a social justice label for construction …
Taking built environment sustainability deeper into the responsibility agenda, the International Living Future Institute are launching (Oct 2013) a new and important transparency initiative for the built environment to sit along side the Living Building Challenge and Declare. Just will provide clients, specifiers and procurers with ‘a view of how participating organisations treat their employees and where they invest their profits’
Just will cover the important areas of gender and ethnic diversity, salary equity, gender pay equity, community involvement, responsible investing and more, taking it beyond other programmes in the built environment sector. (And arguably areas that the UK Considerate Constructors Scheme should be addressing?)
The Press Release from ILFI reads:
In today’s global economy, it’s difficult to know what your consumer dollars are really supporting. JUST gives you an insider’s view of how participating organisations treat their employees and where they invest their profits. JUST works seamlessly with the International Living Future Institute’s Declare™ materials label and the next iteration of the Living Building Challenge™ (Version 3.0 — coming spring 2014).