The 2026 Changemaker Awards
WINNERS
The inaugural FOOTPRINT+ Changemaker Awards recognised the projects, products and people delivering measurable change across the built environment.
Selected by an independent judging panel and announced live at FOOTPRINT+ 2026, the winners reflect the breadth of thinking now shaping the future of property.
Creative Structure
Praised by the judges for the scale of innovation throughout the scheme, particularly its creative reuse of structure, low carbon material strategy and pioneering use of reclaimed steel.
Resourceful Material
Recognised for developing a regenerative low carbon alternative to a widely used construction material.
Smart Digital Tool
Selected for solving a complex real world challenge through an integrated platform that supports circularity across the built environment.
Influential Fit Out
Chosen for demonstrating how commercially and operationally complex fit out projects can still deliver meaningful reductions in material and carbon impact.
Inventive Product
The judges highlighted the product’s commercial viability, ease of application and potential to significantly reduce energy demand within buildings.
Changemaker 2026
Recognised for inspiring industry wide change through leadership, innovation and challenging established ways of working.
Pioneering Retrofit
Selected for its regenerative retrofit approach and its successful integration of all electric design, biodiversity and commercial performance
Visionary Facade
Recognised for its carefully considered response to a complex listed building, delivering meaningful operational improvements while supporting the long term lifecycle of the asset.
Advocacy
The judges highlighted the scale of influence achieved through collaboration, advocacy and sustained leadership across the built environment sector.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Smart Digital Tool
Highly commended for creating an accessible and widely applicable digital tool that supports greater carbon literacy across the built environment.
Inventive Product
Praised by the judges for enabling raised access flooring systems to be removed and reused without damage, helping divert significant material from landfill.
Pioneering Retrofit
The judges highlighted the project’s intelligent approach to adaptive reuse and its ability to deliver meaningful change within tight constraints.
Changemaker 2026
Highly commended for driving ambitious change across a major commercial estate through circular construction, waste reduction and low emissions thinking.
Award Trophies: Designed to last
Joe Jackson, a London based designer working across product and furniture, was commissioned to create a series of leather pieces in collaboration with Bill Amberg Studio. His approach draws on traditional forming techniques, alongside a developed scoring method that allows the material to guide the final form.
The choice of leather is deliberate. The trophies to reflect the thinking behind the Changemaker Awards, not just mark the moment. As a by-product, leather already sits within a wider system, and when used well it is durable, repairable and long lasting. It gives the object a sense of permanence that a conventional trophy does not.