Unlock the power of Regenerative Places: Enriching nature, homes and the built environment
The William Sutton Prize for Sustainability is a catalyst for innovative projects that restore and protect our natural world.
The Prize seeks bold, creative ideas that improve energy efficiency and reduce waste in our new builds and existing homes.
Every idea matters, no matter how big or small. What's essential is that ideas have the potential to make a significant impact and inspire others across the sector.
Our focus areas
In 2025, we called for submissions that centred on one or more of the following areas:
- Regenerative and Climate-Resilient Design: Proposals that enhance community health and wellbeing while improving building longevity. Examples include innovative green construction methods that restore nature and exceed net-zero targets, as well as solutions to make homes resilient to extreme weather, such as nature-based approaches that protect ecosystems and vulnerable communities.
- Retrofitting and Renewable Energy: Proposals that enhance living conditions, lower resident bills, and boost financial and environmental sustainability. Examples include scalable retrofit solutions to upgrade existing homes and innovative financial models to make large-scale retrofitting affordable and cost-efficient.
- Resource Efficiency and Carbon Reduction: Proposals that cut utility bills, conserve resources, reduce waste and carbon emissions, and align with climate goals. Examples include water-efficient homes and infrastructure, as well as circular solutions like bio-based materials and recycling and reuse programmes to minimise construction and household waste.
- Biodiversity and Nature Recovery: Proposals to boost biodiversity, support pollinators, and create recreational green spaces to enhance resident wellbeing and connection to nature. Examples include diverse landscaping with native plants, wildlife corridors for ecological connectivity, and habitat restoration in construction and upgrade projects.
- Wellbeing and Placemaking: Proposals that drive climate friendly choices and community initiatives to improve wellbeing through ideas driven by sustainability. Examples include sustainable travel options like electric vehicles and cycling, and resident engagement tools for property management, energy efficiency, and ongoing feedback through digital platforms.
Finalists announced
We’re excited to reveal the finalists for the 2025 William Sutton Prize for sustainability. After a record-breaking number of entries, our judging panel has selected a shortlist of inspiring projects.
Winners will be announced at our prize-giving ceremony in September, proudly sponsored by The Wiggett Group.
Illustrations by Richard Carman.
AdaptiveHeat
AdaptiveHeat addresses the urgent challenge of decarbonising heating in heritage and hard-to-retrofit homes, where traditional retrofit approaches are often unfeasible. The solution combines low-temperature air source heat pumps, infrared ceiling panels and an AI-powered control platform called Eyesense to deliver more precise, resident-responsive heating. By heating only occupied spaces in real time, it can reduce energy use by over 40% while enhancing comfort. This plug-and-play system enables low-cost, non-invasive retrofitting, particularly suited to social housing and listed buildings. For Clarion, it could offer a way to meet carbon reduction targets across complex housing stock, with minimal tenant disruption. More broadly, it could support national decarbonisation goals, lower energy bills, reduce fuel poverty and improve resident wellbeing.
Eyesea Green Limited
BeeBlox
BeeBlox addresses two urgent challenges: the rapid decline of pollinators due to habitat loss and the environmental impact of concrete, which contributes 8% of global CO₂ emissions. This innovative solution replaces solid concrete retaining walls with beautiful, modular green 3D printed walls made from 96% local waste materials. Each hexagonal unit supports native wild bees by providing tailored soil, shelter, and seasonal forage, co-designed with experts from Kew Gardens. Suitable for use along roads, railways and canals, BeeBlox reconnects fragmented ecosystems and brings biodiversity into everyday infrastructure. For Clarion and the sector more widely, it could offer a solution to meet biodiversity net gain targets, become an off-the-shelf 'net zero net gain' alternative to solid concrete walls, and regenerate grey infrastructure into nature-rich, climate-resilient places.
NoMAD
Home Schooling
Home Schooling is a forward-thinking development model that transforms housing construction sites into live learning environments that teach biobased building skills, support local material supply chains and restore biodiversity. It tackles three interlinked challenges: the housing crisis, the green skills gap, and the environmental toll of conventional development. Each pilot is a small-scale housing project built with local, low-carbon materials, rooted in bioregional supply chains and delivered through Community Land Trusts. By linking sites of cultivation (like forests and farms) with design, planning, on-site construction and accredited training, the model builds skills, biodiversity and new homes simultaneously. With replication, it has the potential to seed a nationwide network of regenerative housing projects, creating a new generation of climate-conscious builders while revitalising local economies and ecosystems.
Material Cultures
ReHarvest Board
ReHarvest Board turns agricultural waste – such as spent mushroom substrate, fruit pulp, and vegetable residues – into low-carbon, high-performance insulation and wall panels. Manufactured using low-energy, non-toxic methods, each panel is lightweight, fire- and water-resistant, and can reduce embodied carbon by up to 80% compared to traditional plasterboard and insulation. With over one million tonnes of agricultural waste generated annually in the UK, much of it landfilled or incinerated, ReHarvest Board offers a scalable solution that diverts waste, cuts emissions, and lowers energy use in buildings. It supports both retrofits and new-builds, promoting healthier, more sustainable homes. Aligned with Clarion’s ESG goals, this innovation tackles waste, energy, and affordability challenges – bringing material science into real-world impact and advancing Clarion’s leadership in low-carbon, circular construction.
Agricycle Innovation Ltd
Retrofit Automation Tool
Bioregional’s Retrofit Automation Tool addresses the urgent need for faster, more reliable retrofit planning across housing portfolios. Built on empirical data (rather than just theoretical models), the tool can process messy datasets, integrate them with geographic property data and smart meter readings, and generate decarbonisation pathways based on real-world performance. It compresses 6-12 months of manual analysis into clear, actionable strategies, enabling housing associations to move quickly, implement solutions and cut carbon emissions. The tool complements existing platforms like Parity by unlocking smart meter-level insights and supports both domestic and non-domestic properties. For Clarion, it could offer a new data-driven route to estate-wide decarbonisation and retrofit programmes.
Bioregional
Re-Use House
ReUse House tackles the climate and housing crises by transforming overlooked urban spaces into new homes using reclaimed building materials. It identifies small infill plots, like garage sites, and combines them with reclaimed materials from nearby end-of-life buildings. These materials are processed in a local neighbourhood factory and used to build high-quality, co-designed homes for social rent. The model includes open-source tools for mapping materials, recertifying components, and training local trades in reuse techniques. Environmentally, this approach reduces embodied carbon, preserves biodiversity by avoiding greenfield development, and reduces waste. In South Bristol alone, it could deliver up to 5,620 new affordable homes across 853 public land sites, while saving 20% of infrastructure costs compared to greenfield development, demonstrating that circular housing can benefit people, places and the planet.
WeCanMake
Meet the judges
The esteemed judging panel is a diverse group of experts and industry leaders dedicated to identifying and supporting groundbreaking ideas that drive meaningful change.
- Chair: Jock Lennox, Chair of the Clarion Housing Group Board
- Bukky Bird, Group Sustainability Director of Barratt Developments
- Greg Fitzgerald, Chair and Chief Executive of Vistry Group
- Tara Gbolade, Co-Founding Director of Gbolade Design Studio
- Peter Murray, Co-Founder of New London Architecture
- Miles Lewis, Director of Sustainability at Clarion Housing Group
- Nick Wood, Regional Managing Director (South) at Clarion Housing Group