The UK shortlist has been announced for the 2015 Ashden Awards. This year’s shortlist includes: two organisations focusing on scaling up local renewable energy generation; two companies helping to reduce the energy consumption of large buildings; two organisations working to alleviate fuel poverty; and a building services engineering company influencing building design to increase energy efficiency.
The seven finalists for the 2015 Ashden UK Awards are as follows:
- The London Borough of Islington’s SHINE initiative (fuel poverty)
- Beat the Cold (fuel poverty)
- Max Fordham (building design)
- Demand Logic (energy consumption – large buildings)
- Enistic (energy consumption – large buildings)
- TGV Hydro (renewables)
- The Low Carbon Hub (renewables)
Reading Buses (low-carbon transport) is on the shortlist for the 2015 Eurostar Ashden Awards for Sustainable Travel. Three other sustainable travel initiatives are on the shortlist, including a peer-to-peer car rental scheme in Bruges, Belgium, and a cycling business collective in Nantes, France.
The shortlist for the 2015 Ashden International Awards will be announced on 17 March. A total of 11 Ashden Award winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society on 11 June. Speakers at previous ceremonies have included Sir David Attenborough and HRH The Prince of Wales.
Winners collect a substantial financial prize and benefit from the prestige of entering an elite group of Ashden Alumni, which can give a huge boost to their chances of attracting new funding and customers. Ashden also gives winners tailored business support and provides networking opportunities to help them to scale up their work.
“It’s exciting to see such a wide variety of initiatives that are finding innovative ways of spreading the benefits of sustainable energy — which include helping reduce building running costs, tackling fuel poverty, and improving quality of life in our towns and cities,” said Sarah Butler-Sloss, Ashden founder-director.