The Good Homes Alliance, a proud member of the Sustainable Development Foundation (SDF), is delighted to highlight the winners of the Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards, unveiled in London on Tuesday 25 June 2025. This one-off, high-profile initiative marked the SDF’s 20th anniversary, honouring two decades of transformative impact in sustainable building practice.
These evidence-based awards, developed by the SDF in partnership with the Passivhaus Trust and the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products (ASBP), celebrate outstanding technical rigour, policy leadership, and climate-conscious collaboration.
Particular recognition was given to new build homes, with The Seed Cohousing by Kirsty Maguire Architects winning the Small Project category. Located near Dundee, this highly sustainable timber home for two households meets Passivhaus Classic and RIBA 2030 targets, showing how performance-led design can be possible even on constrained, low-solar-gain sites. The Large Project category also saw Mikhael Riches outstanding housing development, Goldsmith Street, take home the win – a 93 home Passivhaus project with community and energy affordabilty at its core.
Among the product and innovation winners were two standouts of special interest to Good Homes Alliance members:
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The EcoCocon Straw Panel System, which impressed with its carbon-storing, high-performance prefabricated wall panels—offering a compelling solution for low-impact new builds.
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The PACER tool by Preoptima, which is empowering Local Planning Authorities to assess and reduce whole life carbon in planning applications, promoting accountability and carbon-conscious development from the earliest design stages.
The awards spotlighted the collaborative spirit of the sector and reaffirmed the importance of performance-led, low-carbon housing solutions—values that remain central to the Good Homes Alliance’s mission.
“These awards offer a vital benchmark of excellence. They show how evidence-based, low-carbon housing is not only achievable—it’s already being delivered.”
Julian Brooks, Programme Director, Good Homes Alliance
The awards are sponsored by gold sponsor Ecological Building Systems, and silver sponsors Lamilux UK Ltd, MEAD Consulting, natureplus and Futurebuild, marking 20 years of trailblazing sustainable building practices in the UK. Kindly hosted by Introba.
See more about all the winners below! Or you can discover all the shortlist and winners on the Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards website here: https://esba.uk/
Large project winner
Goldsmith Street – Mikhail Riches
Stirling Prize award-winning social housing development Goldsmith Street demonstrates that local authorities can deliver net zero-ready homes to a tight budget without sacrificing quality. Commissioned by Norwich City Council, this 93-home Passivhaus project has helped redefine affordable housing, creating light-filled, community-focused homes where annual energy bills can be as low as £150.
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Small project winner
The Seed Cohousing – Kirsty Maguire Architects
Replacing a derelict building, The Seed is a co-living home for two households in a woodland garden near Dundee. Reducing embodied and in use energy and carbon was a primary driver of the design and construction of the building. The home is almost entirely timber and meets both Passivhaus Classic standard and RIBA 2030 embodied carbon requirements. It offers a shining example of how Passivhaus can work in locations with difficult site constraints and restricted solar gain.
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Retrofit project winner
Ward Grove – Progress in Practice
A whole-home transformation that demonstrates how deep retrofit can deliver exceptional energy performance, long-term comfort, and inclusive design – all within the constraints of an existing 1980s bungalow. The project has been certified to the AECB CarbonLite Retrofit Standard and achieves performance levels well beyond typical expectations for its type, with annual running costs of only £360. The project also prioritises low embodied carbon through timber-based construction, and thoughtful material choices.
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Product winner
EcoCocon Straw Panel – EcoCocon
EcoCocon’s innovative straw wall system stores more carbon than it emits per square metre. Prefabricated from renewable timber and straw, the panels offer outstanding thermal performance, vapour permeability, and carbon sequestration—all wrapped in a system that’s fast to build, circular by design, and backed by Cradle to Cradle and Passivhaus component certifications.
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Initiative winner
PACER – Preoptima
PACER (Planning Application Carbon Evaluation and Reduction) is a digital platform that empowers Local Planning Authorities with the tools to enforce whole life carbon (WLC) policies in the planning process and reduce both embodied and operational emissions. PACER automates the review of Whole Life Carbon Assessments (WLCAs) submitted in planning applications, providing case officers with clear, data-driven insights into compliance, and prompting actionable recommendations that challenge the carbon impact of developments.
Watch the video I Read the case study I Category shortlist