Net-Zero Changemaker of the Year

Recognising an individual who has personally driven meaningful, measurable decarbonisation outcomes within their organisation or value chain.

The finalists

Agnes Czako, AirEx Technologies

Agnes Czako founded AirEx Technologies and leads it as chief executive, developing a smart air brick that regulates underfloor ventilation to cut heat loss from homes. Her approach was shaped by earlier work delivering more than 30,000 energy assessments in fuel-poor communities, and she has argued consistently that retrofit must account for how people actually live in their homes rather than how models assume they do. She has raised over £10m through grant funding, equity investment and partnerships, including during the pandemic. More than 40,000 units are installed across over 6,300 UK homes, which AirEx projects will save households £40m in bills over their lifetime.

Claire Rainsford, Winston Taylor

Claire Rainsford is head of sustainability at the law firm Winston Taylor, where she has drawn separate environmental activities into a single strategy and improved internal and external reporting, allowing the firm to evidence its performance in client tenders. She led the refurbishment of its London office, cutting operational and embodied carbon, and has extended sustainability into procurement and supply chain decisions alongside building electrification and smart energy controls. She also contributes to Legal Charter 1.5 work across the sector. The firm's EcoVadis rating has risen from Bronze to Gold in two years, alongside a B rating from CDP.

David Dundas, Lunar Society

David Dundas leads the climate change working party at the Lunar Society in a voluntary advisory capacity. A chemistry graduate and retired energy consultant, he previously worked in oil and gas well servicing at Schlumberger, in supply and distribution at Texaco Europe and in energy products marketing at Dow Corning Europe, and ran his own company for more than 25 years. He runs daily online discussions with working party members and delivers webinars to the Society and to the u3a network. He has advised Midlands local authorities on energy saving measures, including a ground source heat pump installation at a community hall.

Emma Pye, PYE Management

Emma Pye founded PYE Management and co-created Carbon Sherpa, a tool intended to help highways, construction and infrastructure organisations apply PAS 2080 whole-life carbon management in practice rather than in principle. With more than 25 years in environmental work, she has authored carbon footprinting methodologies and produced Scope 1 and 2 guidance for ADEPT, the local authority directors' association. She chairs BSI's SES/1/1 committee on environmental management systems, where she has pressed for early-career practitioners to take part in standards development, and founded a scholarship at the University of Hertfordshire, where her own career began.

Karen Pulley, Consilient Health

Karen Pulley is head of sustainability at Consilient Health, a pharmaceutical SME that outsources manufacturing, packaging, testing, storage and distribution, leaving more than 99% of its emissions in Scope 3. She has introduced targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative, annual measurement across all 15 Scope 3 categories and supplier ESG due diligence, working through the supply chain, quality, regulatory, procurement and finance functions rather than running sustainability separately. The company's latest reported footprint shows total market-based emissions down 44% year on year, with upstream transport and distribution down 94% and monthly product returns cut from seven to one.

Megan Youngs, NatWest Group

Megan Youngs is Scope 3 carbon reporting manager at NatWest Group, where she has rebuilt the bank's approach to emissions in its own operations that fall outside its direct control, historically its largest and least reliable operational carbon category. She has established methodologies, credible baselines and forecasting tools, strengthened audit readiness, and introduced service-level carbon footprints with key suppliers, exposing emissions that were previously invisible and allowing teams to target specific hotspots. Supplier-specific emissions data coverage has risen from 18% in 2023 to 44% in 2025. She has also co-led a financial services white paper on Scope 3 reporting.

Ovie Frederick-Simon, SP Energy Networks

Ovie Frederick-Simon is a sustainability specialist at SP Energy Networks, working across both the transmission and distribution sides of the business to move carbon management out of reporting and into investment, design and procurement decisions. He has led a shift away from spend-based carbon accounting towards supplier-specific and lifecycle methods, improving Scope 3 data quality, and has embedded carbon considerations into RIIO-ED2 delivery and RIIO-ED3 business planning. He has commissioned and managed PAS 2080 implementation, SteelZero assessments and pilots of AI-assisted sustainability tools, and coordinates cross-business groups on supply chain decarbonisation and generator fuel reduction.