Net-Zero Communications Award

Celebrating communications, engagement and campaign work that builds transparency, trust and support for credible decarbonisation among external audiences.

The finalists

GridBeyond

Global Energy Trends 2026: Turning Complexity into Clarity

GridBeyond's Global Energy Trends is an annual programme explaining flexibility, optimisation and decarbonisation to industrial and energy audiences across Great Britain, Ireland, the United States, Australia and Japan. It is built around a whitepaper, supported by regional market reports, webinars, a podcast launched in 2025, media partnerships and targeted email campaigns, and is positioned as education rather than product promotion, aimed at countering both exaggerated sustainability claims and the growing reluctance to talk about them at all. The report attracts more than 1,000 downloads a year, readership grew 7% year on year, and the 2026 webinar series averaged 430 registrants a session.

Iron Mountain Data Centers

Digital Decarbonisation

Iron Mountain Data Centers has run a multi-year campaign arguing that annual matching of clean electricity is no longer sufficient and that data centres should pursue locally sourced, hourly-tracked carbon-free power. Aimed at customers, regulators and the wider industry, it has used innovation papers, podcasts, press engagement and expert interviews to set out practical routes, alongside the Green Power Pass, a mechanism launched in 2017 to let customers report the reduced emissions of the power supplied to them. The company reports hour-by-hour clean power monitoring across 75% of purchased electricity and a carbon usage effectiveness score of 0.0027 at the end of 2025.

Newport City Council

Net Zero Newport Communications and Engagement Programme

Newport City Council has built a communications programme around the argument that reaching net zero is a city-wide effort rather than a council one, separating its own 2030 organisational target from Newport's 2050 city target. Internally it uses a climate change staff network, newsletters and a 30-minute carbon literacy course for employees, elected members and school communities. Externally it works through social media, press, events and Newport Matters, the council newspaper delivered to around 70,000 households. Messaging leads on co-benefits such as lower bills and better air quality. Reported engagement includes over 2,000 pupils, 126 workshops and 600-plus attendees at the first Newport EcoFest.

SP Energy Networks

Net-Zero Transition Plan

SP Energy Networks has published a transition plan aligned to the Transition Plan Taskforce disclosure framework, setting out how the network operator intends to reach net zero by 2035 across a business serving more than 3.5 million homes and businesses. Its distinguishing feature is candour about difficulty: the plan explains that emissions will rise in the short term as the network expands to enable wider decarbonisation, and names external dependencies including policy, grid decarbonisation and supply chain readiness. Reported progress includes 100% UK-based renewable electricity in most buildings and substations and estimated savings of 67,992 tCO2 since RIIO-T2 began.

Svante, Deep Sky and Speed Skating Canada

Save the Ice

Save the Ice used speed skating to explain carbon management to a general audience. Launched in person at the Speed Skating World Cup in Calgary, print and digital advertising and on-site signage carrying the line "Help the Climate. Save the Ice." directed people via QR code to a landing page hosting an educational video about how climate change is affecting winter sports. Each share triggered the purchase of direct air capture credits from Deep Sky, up to an agreed ceiling, funded by Svante. The video passed one million views on YouTube and generated thousands of shares.

The Marketing Pod

Big Green Fears: Tacking the Monster Under the Corporate Desk

Big Green Fears examines greenhushing – organisations deliberately saying less about sustainability for fear of scrutiny or regulatory action. The Marketing Pod surveyed more than 250 directors at UK organisations employing over 100 people, finding that 85% had intentionally reduced sustainability communications and that 98% of those had lost business as a result of being unable to substantiate green claims. The findings were published as a deliberately design-led report using a fairytale theme and a monster mascot, promoted through PR, LinkedIn advertising and paid search. In its first month it secured seven pieces of media coverage, including Reuters.

Utilita Energy

Live Carbon Dashboard

Utilita Energy publishes its live operational carbon footprint, including Scope 3, on a public dashboard showing how the electricity grid is operating in real time by region. The supplier's argument is that concepts such as time-of-use tariffs and load shifting remain abstract until people can see when power is cleanest, and that regional live data counters blanket "100% green" tariff marketing. The dashboard underpins behaviour change campaigns including Energy High 5, Cost to Cook and the Power Price List, aimed at domestic and vulnerable households often left out of technical net-zero discussion. The Cost to Cook research was referenced in over 3,000 articles.