BREEAM Awards 2026 Honour the Built Environment’s Climate Champions — From Brussels to Birmingham

LONDON — The winners of the 2026 BREEAM Awards, the built environment’s leading global sustainability honours, were revealed in London on 30 September, putting the spotlight on the people, projects and cities setting the pace on climate action in construction — from a Greek sustainability champion to a historic London palace and a carbon-cutting Dutch housing giant.

BRE, the Building Research Establishment behind the awards, said more than 350 entries were submitted this year. For over 30 years, BREEAM has been the world’s leading sustainability assessment method for buildings, infrastructure and masterplanning, with more than three million registered assets across 108 countries. The 2026 awards introduced eight new categories reflecting shifting priorities, including climate resilience, digital sustainability, social value and sustainable cities.

The champions: Levantis and the resilience stars

The Sustainability Champion title went to Pantelis Levantis of Ecoveritas in Greece, recognising years of leadership bringing green building standards to one of Europe’s toughest markets. According to Ecoveritas, the consultancy recently steered the APIVITA Hive in Athens to BREEAM Official In-Use Outstanding certification at 89.3% — the first and highest BREEAM rating ever awarded in Greece.

The Climate Resilience Excellence award went to Wonderwoods in Utrecht, the Netherlands, honouring a development designed to help residents and ecosystems withstand a warming climate. In the Romanian city of Boldesti-Scaeni, the CERC project won two honours — Small Project, Big Impact (people’s choice) and Communities and Social Value Leadership — while Ghena Zakhour of Rider Levett Bucknall in the UK was named Future Sustainability Advocate.

A 12th-century palace goes from G to A

In the refurbishment category, the winner was Lambeth Palace in London, the Grade I listed landmark dating from the 12th century. Its most extensive refurbishment in 70 years lifted the building’s energy performance certificate from G to A and cut modelled primary energy use by 77%. The project installed three air-source heat pumps and 160 double-glazed windows, recycled more than 39 tonnes of timber, and used a digital twin that modelled heat loss across the historic campus — introducing low-carbon systems without erasing the building’s historic character.

The New Construction Project of the Year was Quatuor in Brussels, Belgium: a 60,000 m² mixed-use complex whose four towers each achieved BREEAM Outstanding, contributing to an overall score of 92.8%. The development combines geothermal seasonal energy storage with a 417 m³ rainwater buffer that diverts 63% of rainfall from the public sewer.

28,000 homes running cleaner every year

The In-Use Performance award went to Vesteda Investment Management B.V. of the Netherlands, recognised for systematically improving an entire portfolio rather than a single showcase building. The company says it holds the largest BREEAM-certified residential portfolio in the world, at more than 28,000 homes. Using BREEAM data to target underperforming assets, BRE reports Vesteda cut total energy intensity from 101.9 to 90.1 kWh/m² between 2022 and 2025, with water use down 17% and CO₂ emissions down 16% over the same period.

Birmingham took the Sustainable City Award after embedding sustainability in city planning: the council reports 87 buildings now rated BREEAM Excellent or above, including five rated Outstanding, with planning policy requiring non-residential developments over 1,000 m² to target BREEAM Excellent since 2017. The Portfolio ESG Impact award went to Iron Mountain Data Centers, which has certified twelve data centres across ten sites and has ten more in progress after adopting BREEAM for new colocation developments.

Why buildings decide the climate fight

“The places we create today will shape people’s lives for decades to come,” said Ian Shapiro, CEO of BRE. “That matters more than ever as communities respond to a changing climate, growing populations and increasing urbanisation. The projects recognised this year show what is possible when people make thoughtful, long-term decisions about the places we all depend on.”

Other winners included the Majorstuen Station upgrade in Oslo (Infrastructure Project of the Year, NCC Infrastructure Norway), GSK HQ – Project Emerald in London (Responsible Occupier), Paradise SE11 in London (Lifecycle Impact Commitment), the Aviva Investors Portfolio (Multi-Certification Leadership, People’s Choice), Sustainabot (Digital Sustainability Innovation) and Bopro of Belgium (Assessor Organisation of the Year).

FAKTA

• What: BREEAM Awards 2026, revealed by BRE in London on 30 September 2026
• Sustainability Champion: Pantelis Levantis, Ecoveritas (Greece)
• Climate Resilience Excellence: Wonderwoods, Utrecht (Netherlands)
• In-Use Performance: Vesteda, Netherlands — 28,000+ homes; energy intensity down from 101.9 to 90.1 kWh/m² (2022–2025)
• Entries: More than 350; BREEAM covers 3M+ assets in 108 countries
• Context: Buildings and construction remain among the largest sources of global CO₂ emissions — and one of the fastest arenas for climate solutions

From Athens to Amsterdam, the 2026 awards show that climate leadership is no longer the exception in the built environment — it is the standard to beat. Read this story on our main site and follow Watan News International’s climate coverage for more stories on the road to COP31.