And the winners are....

Goldsmith Street    I    Mikhail Riches

Stirling Prize award-winning social housing development Goldsmith Street demonstrates that local authorities can deliver net zero-ready homes to a tight budget without sacrificing quality. Commissioned by Norwich City Council, this 93-home Passivhaus project has helped redefine affordable housing, creating light-filled, community-focused homes where annual energy bills can be as low as £150. 

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The Seed Cohousing     I    Kirsty Maguire Architects

Replacing a derelict building, The Seed is a co-living home for two households in a woodland garden near Dundee. Reducing embodied and in use energy and carbon was a primary driver of the design and construction of the building. The home is almost entirely timber and meets both Passivhaus Classic standard and RIBA 2030 embodied carbon requirements.  It offers a shining example of how Passivhaus can work in locations with difficult site constraints and restricted solar gain.

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Ward Grove     I    Progress in Practice

A whole-home transformation that demonstrates how deep retrofit can deliver exceptional energy performance, long-term comfort, and inclusive design - all within the constraints of an existing 1980s bungalow. The project has been certified to the AECB CarbonLite Retrofit Standard and achieves performance levels well beyond typical expectations for its type, with annual running costs of only £360. The project also prioritises low embodied carbon through timber-based construction, and thoughtful material choices.

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EcoCocon  Straw Panel    I    EcoCocon

EcoCocon’s innovative straw wall system stores more carbon than it emits per square metre. Prefabricated from renewable timber and straw, the panels offer outstanding thermal performance, vapour permeability, and carbon sequestration—all wrapped in a system that’s fast to build, circular by design, and backed by Cradle to Cradle and Passivhaus component certifications.

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PACER    I    Preoptima

PACER (Planning Application Carbon Evaluation and Reduction) is a digital platform that empowers Local Planning Authorities with the tools to enforce whole life carbon (WLC) policies in the planning process and reduce both embodied and operational emissions. PACER automates the review of Whole Life Carbon Assessments (WLCAs) submitted in planning applications, providing case officers with clear, data-driven insights into compliance, and prompting actionable recommendations that challenge the carbon impact of developments. 

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"The Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards have helped break down the often perceived silos between operational and embodied carbon. The winners and shortlisted projects, products and initiatives have shown that sustainable building products are being successfully specified in buildings targeting low operational energy, helping with the transformation to a healthy low carbon built environment."

Simon Corbey, Alliance for Sustainable Building Products

"The Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards are demanding and data-driven. We’ll continue to push for greater transparency and verification in performance data, supporting the shift toward measured outcomes over predicted models.”

Jon Bootland, CEO, Passivhaus Trust & Sustainable Development Foundation