BDP, an interdisciplinary design practice with about a hundred staff in Belfast has been working since 2006 to reduce energy consumption by 20% by 2011. Significant capital and management time had already been invested, but to reach the 2011 target, full staff involvement is required. And it was BDP’s campaign to involve staff that won the award for best carbon-saving programme undertaken by an SME as part of CIBSE’s 100 hours of carbon clean up.

The aesthetics of renewable energy such as solar photo-voltaic can detract from its use — a problem that is overcome by solar PV panels that look identical to conventional roof slates, winning for PV Systems the award for product innovation of the year.

The intention of a Display Energy Certificate and its associated advisory report is to raise awareness of energy usage in public buildings, thus encouraging a greater effort in energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. So reasoned I-prophets Energy Services, why not make the DEC available on a web site? That philosophy won for the company the award for low-carbon innovation of the year — design or technical.

The efforts of Philip Belton, technical engineer at Medway Maritime Hospital enjoyed high-level backing from the hospital chairman and won for him the award for low-carbon operator/manager of the year. Technical measures and encouraging the involvement of people both played an important role in the drive to meet a target of 15% carbon reduction by 2010.

What can be achieved by devoting 100 hours to carbon clean-up, an hour a day for a hundred days, was demonstrated by the winner of CIBSE’s 100 hours of carbon clean-up campaign last Autumn.

Having obtained a Energy Performance Certificate typical for a building of existing stock, the occupier of Alexandra House, the head office of the Police Mutual Association, was pleased but surprised — having expected a much worse rating.

The rate at which the UK building stock is being replaced is so low that targets for reducing carbon emissions depend heavily on what can be achieved by refurbishing existing buildings. One such project reduced CO2 emissions by 72% to 3.8 t per year — winning the award for refurbishment project of the year for Sigrid Stagel and Peter Kaufmann for the low-carbon refurbishment of a period home and demonstrating that the challenge of reducing energy use in homes can be met with the skills of low-carbon designers. If the living area had not been increased by 38%, the CO2 reduction would have been 80%.

There is nothing like a responsive client to help low-carbon consultants and low-carbon energy assessors achieve their objects — and Leisure Connection was awarded client of the year in recognition of its efforts led by head of property services Paul Bailey and covering many small-scale projects in a wide range of properties and the success in communicating to a wide audience of employees and members of the public.

Moving steadily towards becoming zero-carbon is a building in the ZEBRA (Zero Emissions Building Renewing Alnwick) project in Northumberland, which won for consultants Faber Maunsell the award for new-build project of the year.

Transport for London took CIBSE’s low-carbon awards to heart, becoming a finalist in four categories and winning two of them.

The importance of combined heat and power (CHP) in delivering significant reductions in carbon emissions is demonstrated by two projects master-minded by the low-carbon consultant of the year, Andrew Gardner of CCL Consulting Ltd.