Beyond Refrigeration Environmental Award

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Deadline 10th November

The Beyond Refrigeration Award is presented annually to a project or innovation that demonstrates the achievements of our sector in reducing environmental emissions from cooling in the UK. The award supports one of the most important priorities for IOR members – to address the challenges of net zero as well as facilitating the sharing of innovation, raising awareness of best practice and promoting the advancement of technology for the good of society.  Not only will the winning project, company and team be recognised before their peers at the IOR Annual Dinner each year, they will be invited to give a technical paper on the IOR written papers programme to ensure that awareness of innovative and successful solutions are maximised.

The award is linked to the practical application of the IOR’s Beyond Refrigeration priorities that are aimed at supporting the sector towards net zero. The award is open to companies or a collaboration between companies. Entries can be for a single or multi-site innovation or project in any refrigeration, air conditioning or heat pump field (industrial, commercial or domestic). The project must have been installed and must be operational. Entries must provide robust data on performance, energy usage and environmental impact. It is anticipated that a successful project will address at least four of the seven critical areas for addressing climate change as outlined in the IOR’s Beyond Refrigeration template.  These are: maximising system performance, using best technology, balancing heating and cooling, reducing the need for cooling, intelligent energy use, developing the best people and skills, working together and whole system lifetime. Read more about these topics at www.ior.org.uk/beyondrefrigeration

Judging Criteria

An independent panel of Judges will consider entries against the following criteria:

• Demonstration of Beyond Refrigeration principles cited.
• Scale and benefits of environmental savings achieved (eg compared to previous installations or industry benchmarks).
• Potential for replicability or wider application.
• Innovative nature of the approach.
• The award is designed to recognise recent projects, but as it is necessary to have had time to demonstrate result, it should be no longer than 2 years since the completion date of the project.

Winner of the 2025 Beyond Refrigeration Environmental Award

Integrated Solution Plus from Space Engineering Services

This winning project demonstrates how integrated thinking can achieve significant environmental benefits at scale. Multiple HFC refrigeration systems and gas boilers were replaced with a compact, all-electric solution using natural CO₂ refrigerant, reducing materials, disruption, energy use and emissions. Live performance data confirms high efficiency, strong seasonal results and verified lifecycle carbon savings of around 180 tonnes, alongside a clear commercial return. Judges were particularly impressed by the commitment to continuous improvement and the effective energy control strategy, showing the potential to remove fossil-fuel heating from retail refrigeration applications.

Previous winners

• 2024 - Smart Parc Energy Centre in Derby, GEA Heating & Refrigeration Solutions
• 2023 - True Circular Economy for the Cooling Industry by Sustain

Highly commends

• 2023 - Reaching Net Zero with Cooling Data by Tesco, Star Refrigeration  and Star Data Analytics