Winner - One Carbon



Dutch consultancy One Carbon trumped the home-grown talent to take the prize for the best carbon reduction project. Their project captures potent greenhouse gas methane from palm oil processing facilities in Honduras and uses it to produce electricity.

The project then sells carbon credits, guaranteed to meet the Gold Standard under the UN backed Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

The judges said this project offered the most 'bang for your buck' and was of particular interest as methane capture was an issue the world over and the lessons learned from this project had a huge potential to be built upon elsewhere.

Jan-Willem Bode, chief executive of One Carbon said: "I think this recognition is really good because this is one of those projects that is really community-owned and it shows how carbon trading can really work."

Case Study

Runners Up

Efficient Air for a project which overhauled the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system at Brighton University, improving efficiency and thereby cutting energy use.

Hyder Consulting for a scheme that cuts the time needed to wash the undercarriage of a train from three hours to seven minutes - resulting in significant cuts to both water and energy consumption.
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Jacobs for the production of a carbon calculator tool which enables the designers of the Environment Agency's flood defences to work out the likely emissions of a scheme and identify ways to reduce the total.
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Mitsubishi for plans to concentrate on ultra-efficient heat pumps to drive the air conditioning units the company produces - a scheme expected to save over 3 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2016.
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Sustain for helping Gedling Borough Council install combined heat and power and solar hot water heating in flats - paving the way for future energy-saving schemes in the borough.

Judging panel

Nicky Gavron, London Deputy Mayor
Dr Liz Goodwin, Chief Executive WRAP
Sir John Harman, Environment Agency Chairman
Peter Bonfield, BRE Director
David Vincent, Carbon Trust Technology Director

Judging criteria


· Technology: How does the project make best use of existing technologies?
· Carbon Credits: How have carbon credits, if used, been sourced and can the projects they fund be tracked and monitored?
· Emission Reduction: Discounting offsetting, how much have actual emissions been reduced and how has this been achieved?
· Beyond Easy Wins: Does the project manage to make reductions once the low hanging fruit - such as switching off equipment when not in use - has been picked?
· Cultural Change: Does the project have the potential to stimulate behavioural change across the client company? If so, how?
· Public Awareness: Does the project effectively encourage positive change in attitude or behaviour amongst the general public and consumers?
· Innovation: How does the scheme go beyond existing good practice?
· Efficiency: Does the final project offer good value for time, money and effort?
· Influence: Does the project have the potential to influence future initiatives and is it likely to have industry-wide impact? If so, how?
· Delivery: How did the final project compared to the original plans? Was it delivered on time and on budget?