Success takes on many shapes and forms. Great success, as they say, has many mothers and fathers. This year’s Awards - our 16th to date – was a great success. It also happened to be our most measurable Sustainability Awards we’ve had to date; and by that, I mean in terms of the sheer volume of data we managed to collect.

In terms of basic numbers, there was a grand total of 202 entries, 70 of which were shortlisted. On the night, we saw 16 Winners, while 10 entries were Highly Commended. The facts and figures we got on what the attendees liked and didn’t like was simply astounding. These will come in good use for the planning of the 2023 Awards.

2022 Sustainability Summit

Prior to this event I wrote and also predicted that, “For the past 16 years, Architecture & Design magazine has presented the Sustainability Awards - Australia’s oldest national sustainability awards program dedicated to rewarding excellence in sustainability across our built environment.”

But in many ways, my words may well have been a gross understatement.

Looking at the day-long Sustainability Summit, with its seven sessions, 40 Speakers, and 300 in-person attendees, plus 320 online attendees, the feedback that I and many who work on the Awards received was nothing short of exhilarating. And that’s not even mentioning the keynote by Minter Ellison’s Phoebe Roberts, possibly one of the best starts to a Summit since its inception in 2016.

Minter Ellison’s Phoebe Roberts

Nearly every single attendee I spoke to said something along the lines of: ‘This is the only event of its kind in Australia and is exactly what the industry needs.”

In other words, the industry showed both in words and with the high number of physical attendees that our national Sustainability Awards were an industry event that needed to be firmly on everyone’s calendar.

As for the actual Awards Gala night, well, all I can say is “What a night!” Looking at the quality of winners this year and also the number of entries that were of the highest calibre, it is safe to say that sustainability is at least, on the right track in the built environment.

For the full list of winners, click here.

Marni Reti from Kaunitz Yeung Architecture (Best Emerging Architect / Designer)

2022 Sustainability Awards Gala night

As just an example, the overall (Best of the Best) winner - Pepper Tree Passive House by Alexander Symes Architect was stunning to say the least. The winners in the People categories - Marni Reti from Kaunitz Yeung Architecture (Best Emerging Architect / Designer) and Chris Nunn from AMP Capital (Lifetime Achievement) pretty much described up the whole night – pedigree, calibre and potential – honourable and worthy sentiments that we will be taking into the planning for 2023.

Pepper Tree Passive House by Alexander Symes Architect, Best of the Best winner. Photo : Barton Taylor

This year we also had another new category - Editor's Choice - picked by your's truly, with the winner being Bay Pavilions Arts + Aquatic by NBRS in collaboration with Donovan Payne Architects. Photo: Alexander Mayes

What we will also take into next years’ planning was just how important our sponsors and partners were – without which we could not have had such a successful day and night.

So, what is it that made the 2022 Sustainability Awards such a raving success? People. The people that designed the actual awards, that put the awards program together, the people that planned and helped run the event, the people that ensured the event was promoted far and wide, those that turned up as attendees and our panellists & moderators and of course, the Gala guests, as well as the wonderful management and staff at Sydney’s iconic Shangri-la hotel.

All these people deserve the gratitude and praise of everyone over here at Architecture & Design.

And believe it or not, the planning for the next years’ Sustainability Awards has already begun, so resting on our laurels is certainly not something we could be accused of doing.

Chris Nunn from AMP Capital (Lifetime Achievement winner)

While I am unsure as to what next years’ awards will exactly focus on, what I can tell you is that people will feature more prominently in the 2023 awards, meaning that not only will we be honouring those that will help make our awards great again – to use a well-worn phrase – but also we will be looking at rewarding those that have given their all and then some in order to help make sustainability the goal for everything we do both in our industry and across our wider lives.

To sum up, congratulations to everyone that had anything to do with the planning and/or those that attended the 2022 Sustainability Awards – just remember, it’s almost the end of the year and pretty soon, we will be talking about the 2023 Awards.

For my part, I can’t wait!

For more information about the 2022 Sustainability Awards, go to: https://www.sustainablebuildingawards.com.au/2022-winners/

For any initial enquiries about the 2023 Sustainability Awards, email our sales team at adrian.wilson@architectureanddesign.com.au

Branko Miletic

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