The independent jury of renowned experts conferred the Global Citizenship Award on the Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction which has generated international awareness of the critical importance of sustainability of the built environment. The jury commented that “the scale of the Holcim Awards endeavor and reach, with some 5000 submissions across 121 countries, really speaks for itself in terms of Global Citizenship”.

The Holcim Awards competition is the principal initiative of the Holcim Foundation. The competition celebrates innovative, future-oriented and tangible sustainable construction projects and visions from around the globe and provides prize money of USD 2 million per three-year competition cycle. The Holcim Awards competition received the accolade in the “Business and Society” category for its wide geographic spread, broad definition of sustainable construction, scale of prize money conferred, independence from sponsor Holcim Ltd, and the promotion of interdisciplinary approaches to sustainable construction.

General Manager, Edward Schwarz (above, left) accepted the Global Citizenship Award on behalf of the Holcim Foundation, together with Dr Miles Watkins (above, right), Director of Environmental and Corporate Social Responsibility of Aggregate Industries, part of the Holcim Group and representative of the Holcim Awards in the UK. The award was presented by Emma Hope (above, center), Environmental Consultant at AEA.

The sustain’ Magazine Awards attracted some 200 entries from which 83 nominees were shortlisted for 18 Award categories. Finalists in the “Business and Society” category included the City of London Corporation’s London Accord program for collaborative research on funding solutions to climate change, and the International Fund for Animals initiative “Animals on the Underground”.

Aggregate Industries, Holcim's Group company in the UK, received the Award for Construction in the “Property and the Built Environment” category. The A38 Glynn Valley Project by Bardon Contracting, Aggregate Industries’ road surfacing and civil contracting business, was praised as a well managed environmental scheme. It won praise for its liaison process, planning, material selection and benefits given to road users.

sustain' Magazine is the principal British magazine for Sustainability, Business and the Built Environment. The sustain’ Magazine Awards were held to celebrate the publication’s 10th Anniversary on the first day of Ecobuild 2009.

The Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction is an international competition which seeks innovative, future-oriented and tangible construction projects to promote sustainable construction on a local, regional and global level. The competition is run by the Swiss-based Holcim Foundation, offers USD 2 million in prize money, and is sponsored by Holcim Ltd and its Group companies in more than 70 countries including Aggregate Industries in the United Kingdom.

Global winners of the Holcim Awards 2009 will be announced on May 8, 2009. The Holcim Awards competition is conducted over a three-year cycle. Entries in the next cycle of the competition will open in mid-2010.