Building Performance Engineer of the Year
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This award recognises and rewards the contributions of practicing building services engineers to creating and maintaining a sustainable built environment. It celebrates individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the science, art and practice of building services engineering in 2018-20.
Winner: Mike Burton, Director – AECOM
Mike Burton was selected for this year’s Building Performance Engineer of the Year award because his passion, high level of knowledge and uniquely his holistic approach to building projects make him a shining example in the field of engineering.
Mike is a director, a chartered engineer and a CIBSE Fellow, with more than 30 years of sustainable design experience and 250 engineers under his direction.
His achievements over the past four years, with Aecom and as an individual, have been commendable, but his work in 2020 was especially outstanding. From his completion of the award-winning BBC Wales headquarters – a highly innovative, community-centred space – to his extensive work on the Institute of Physics headquarters in London, Mike’s portfolio that year demonstrates his trailblazing approach to building performance.
Throughout all his projects, Mike has strived to bring in a fresh new wave of sustainable engineering. He has a multifaceted, yet holistic, approach to reducing buildings’ environmental impact, which includes a focus on: integrated supply chains; refurbishment over replacement; local community engagement; and, most importantly, looking at sustainability as a standard to apply to the whole building rather than just as a box to tick.
Mike’s recent contributions to building services engineering go far beyond the design and construction processes. He has written and reviewed multiple leading industry publications, including the 2019 RIBA Future Office book and the 2019 BCO Guide to the Specification of Offices.
The first in his family to attend university, Mike is committed to fostering equality and early career support in the engineering profession. The judges were impressed with his sustained efforts to foster diversity and inclusion in the industry, including school visits, a mentoring programme for female engineers – which won the 2021 Women in Communications Engineering Mentorship Award – and his extensive work with the University of Nottingham Industrial and Advisory Board to improve course content and student industry links.
‘The depth of knowledge and experience Mike showed was commendable,’ the judges said. ‘He spoke so passionately of his work with new entrants into the industry… he has great pride in his profession.’