Operational Energy Reduction Project of the Year

Recognising initiatives with proven reductions in day-to-day energy use and emissions across sites or operations through controls, data, optimisation, process improvement and behaviour change.

The finalists

Aviva

Driving Sustainable Technology through GreenOps Adoption

Aviva has created an IT GreenOps team to bring energy consumption into the same operational conversations as cost, performance and reliability, on the basis that measurement alone changes nothing without standards, governance and tools engineers can use. The team built the data, processes and standards itself and embedded them into business-as-usual, so architects and developers work within a defined framework and business teams now carry annual energy saving targets alongside their other metrics. Originally a project, it is now a permanent function. Aviva reports an estimated annual energy reduction of 160MWh, equivalent to roughly 5% of its IT energy consumption.

Cardiff Metropolitan University

Halve the Half

Analysis of half-hourly meter data at Cardiff Metropolitan University found that around half of its energy was consumed outside core hours of 07:00 to 19:00 on weekdays, when buildings were largely empty. Rather than investing in new plant, the estates team used existing metering and building management systems to review schedules, controls and plant behaviour, identifying faults and mismatches between operating settings and actual occupancy. Work was delivered in-house within existing budgets. By December 2025, against a 2023 baseline, gas use had fallen 33%, electricity 10% and water 20.1%, saving 2.3GWh of energy and around 10,000 cubic metres of water.

P&O Cruises

Iona: Powering Efficient Cruising

P&O Cruises combined engineering upgrades with software and crew-led change on Iona to cut energy use across both propulsion and hotel loads, which vary continuously with weather, itinerary and passenger numbers and so cannot be managed through fixed settings. Dry dock work installed an air lubrication system, advanced hull coatings and hydrodynamic improvements including thruster grids, alongside real-time energy optimisation software and onboard teams trained to act on the data. The operator reports over 10,000MWh of annual energy savings and around £2m in annual cost savings, and is now extending the optimisation software across the wider fleet.

RS Group

RS Local Branch Decarbonisation Strategy

RS Group has focused decarbonisation on its 16 RS Local trade counter branches in the UK, prioritising the most emissions-intensive sites and combining electrified heating and cooling, hot water upgrades, zoning and partitioning to reduce heated volume, and fleet electrification, supported by £2m of annual investment. Delivery ran through a net zero working group with executive-level oversight, splitting effort between quick wins, process optimisation and longer-term roadmaps. Emissions across the branch network have halved over three years. Gas-related emissions have fallen 54%, first-phase fleet electrification has cut diesel use by 30% in a year, and 19 of 21 vehicles are now electric.

ScotRail and OptimiseAI

Speed of Right at the Speed of Light

ScotRail manages around 360 stations and nine depots, from Victorian buildings to modern maintenance sheds, previously overseen through periodic reporting and separate data systems that made it impossible to locate waste as it happened. With OptimiseAI, it built digital twin models from existing smart meter data, starting with a small pilot before extending to 25 sites, eight of which – including Glasgow Queen Street, Aberdeen and Inverness – received zone-level sub-metering and demand-responsive controls linked to live passenger data. All 25 sites are now benchmarked against Energy Performance Certificate standards, and compliance reporting for SECR, ESOS and ISO 50001 is generated automatically.

Sky

Integrated Energy Reduction Programme

Sky has sourced all its electricity from certified renewable generation since 2009, and since 2022 has run a parallel efficiency programme on the basis that renewable supply is itself finite. Work has covered in-house design standards for building projects, a multi-year HVAC optimisation programme delivered first through an energy services company and later by in-house energy managers, efficiency measures in data centre environments, and green lease clauses negotiated into five contracts covering over 5,000 square metres. Electricity use has fallen 6%, or 9GWh, and gas use 23%, or 4.5GWh, with HVAC savings independently verified to IPMVP protocol.

Winston Taylor

London Office Refurbishment

Winston Taylor's refurbishment of 5 New Street Square set out to cut operational energy through a whole-building approach rather than isolated upgrades. Gas heating was replaced with heat pumps and the building runs on renewable electricity, removing direct fossil fuel emissions. Ventilation, heating, cooling and lighting are all linked to occupancy sensors, and smaller rooms are left unheated, relying instead on residual warmth from adjoining spaces and occupants. Sub-metering and real-time monitoring allow facilities teams to identify inefficiencies and tune systems continuously. There has been an improvement in energy efficiency of approximately 50% against the building's previous performance.