Calling entrants for new Greenbuild Awards

The Greenbuild Awards 2012, in partnership with the Green Gauge Trust, are now open to applicants with sustainable new-build and retrofit projects.

The UK buildings industry is undergoing major changes as sustainability standards are becoming more ambitious and targets for energy use and carbon emissions become more challenging.

Added to this there is more demand to show that the standards and targets are actually being met. The Greenbuild Awards 2012 has been set up to recognise good practice and showcase the best work in the UK.

Winners will be announced at a dinner at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester on 9 May. The shortlist entries will be announced and published in early 2012 and will all be showcased at Greenbuild Expo at Manchester Central on 9 and 10 May.

The judges include Liz Reason, managing director of Green Gauge Trust; George Martin, head of sustainable development at Willmott Dixon; Chris Pateman, managing director of Builders Merchants Federation; Kerry Mashford, lead technologist at Technology Strategy Board; and Paul Ruyssevelt of Ruyssevelt Consulting.

Reason said: "Too many buildings have won sustainability awards only to learn later that their actual performance is not as designed. We have long believed there should be an award that recognises actual building performance. The Greenbuild Awards will go to buildings that provide hard evidence of their claims – a first!"

The Greenbuild Awards will recognise and reward the best performance of sustainable buildings in use in the following categories:

• Domestic newbuild
• Domestic refurbishment
• Healthcare newbuild and refurb
• Office newbuild
• Office refurb
• Leisure newbuild
• Leisure refurb
• Educational newbuild
• Education refurb
• Retail newbuild
• Retail refurb
• Manufacturing newbuild and refurb
• Breakthrough award – for any person/project that has raised the bar and done something different to achieve a low-energy and sustainable building
• Behavioural change award – for any project that can demonstrate the impact behavioural change has had on its performance
• New retrofit product award, in association with Salford University, to recognise product innovations for retrofit solutions

Greenbuild has worked with the Usable Buildings Trust to create the guidance for entry requirements. The requirements will include actual performance across a range of factors including: outcomes, design and construction process and achieved performance.

Entries for the awards will be accepted until 31 January 2012, with a shortlist drawn up by 1 March 2012. The shortlist will be showcased at Greenbuild Expo on 9 and 10 May at Manchester Central and the winners will be announced at a celebratory dinner on 9th May, to be held at the Museum of Science & Industry.

For an entry form or further details please email lucy@greenbuildnews.co.uk and you can also follow @gb_awards on Twitter. To find out more visit http://www.greenbuildexpo.co.uk