Hero Bennett is shortlisted for the Women in Green Business Awards 2025

A woman wearing a grey suit on a black background

In the week celebrating International Women in Engineering Day, we're delighted to share that our Director of Sustainability, Hero Bennett, has been shortlisted in two categories at the Women in Green Business Awards 2025: Buildings Professional of the Year, and Corporate Sustainability Lead of the Year. 
 

The Women in Green Business Awards honour the women leading the UK’s transition to net zero, highlighting the sustainability-driven companies that are advancing diversity and inclusion in a sector where women continue to encounter substantial obstacles to career growth.

Hero's career has been driven by a strong desire to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. Starting out 20 years ago in Fuel Cell development, she transitioned to the built environment as a way of becoming more connected to people. She says she finds joy in creating buildings with low environmental impact and supporting happy lives. Hero leads our commitment to the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), and is engaged with social and environmental agendas through helping to set up and run Max Fordham's Social Value group for a number of years, and as an active member of a climate campaign group in Cambridge. Through her contributions to the industry, such as 'The Sustainability Matrix', which was adopted by the industry to help set sustainability targets for projects across the UK. 

Hero participated in the UKGBC Systems Change programme and is committed to knowledge sharing as a way of influencing the whole system, Hero led the practice’s first Beyond Net Zero Carbon whitepaper. Published in April this year, the whitepaper is an encapsulation of what we believe as a practice, a summary of what we see as the state of the net zero nation, and a statement of our intent.

The winners of the Women in Green Business Awards will be announced on 8th October at an awards ceremony in Central London.

people gather around a table to discuss ideas.

Hero at a workshop with the design team to share ideas and to gain a shared understanding of what sustainability means on a project

A woman presenting in front of a group of people

Hero presenting the Sustainability Matrix to the project team

Hero with her heat pump in Cambridge.

Hero has been testing different low impact materials as part of her home renovation, upgrading fabric with natural materials and switching from gas to a heat pump

Hero speaking at the launch of the white paper

Hero speaking at the launch of the Beyond Net Zero whitepaper