2021 was the first year we’ve been involved in the CIBSE Young Engineers Awards. And what a privilege it was to be part of the celebrations.

The evening started with a series of presentations from the shortlisted Graduates of the Year on the theme of Sustainable and safe built environment for the future. It was interesting to see the different approaches of the finalists to the presentations. They all called on current topics such as the pandemic, stockpiling, and wastefulness. And reminded us that it’s a global challenge that is needed, not just one country alone. The presentations were all so good we don’t know how the judges managed to choose the winner!

A couple of our highlights from the presentations were:

·         We shouldn’t design just for compliance - we should design for Part L as a minimum

·         Making lots of small changes to add up (sustainability requires collective actions)

And Lucy from FairHeat was the winner of the category with her presentation all about Inertia - social inertia, regulatory inertia, and inertia in built environment. Well done Lucy and also well done to her employer FairHeat who was the winner of the Employer of the year in the small business category.

Other companies who took home awards for their commitment to nurturing young talent were:

·         Chapman bdsp – Employer of the year winner of medium size category and overall winner

·         ATAL from Hong Kong – Employer of the year winner of the large size category.

There were talks from previous winners and colleagues from CIBSE and ASHRAE who themselves started their careers as apprentices.

The Technical Apprentice of the year winners expressed their passion for the Apprentice routes and are perfect advocates for the built environment. First place went to Harry Playfair, NG Bailey.

The Degree Apprentice of the year winners shared why their role in building services impact the environment and, importantly, how to plan for a sustainable future. First place went to Josie C., WSP

Before the final announcements we were joined by Mike Schwelder the 2021-2022 Ashrae Society President who echoed the ethos of the night encouraging everyone to ensure we ‘Feed the roots, increase the networks’.

A big thanks to everyone involved in the evening and congratulations to all the winners and shortlists who are the Young Engineers building our future. It was an honour for us to be involved for the first year with our sister brand Ideal Heating Commercial Division.