This World Environment Day the Society for the Environment (SocEnv) presented the Environmental Professional of the Year 2018 award to Anglian Water CHP Manager and Chartered Environmentalist, Graham Powell.

The award was presented to Graham by IES Vice President, Professor Will Pope. On receiving the award, Graham expressed that he was "in shock" when his name was read out. Graham has lead and mentored projects aimed at issues to promote the fundamentals of 'Reduce, Refurbish, Re-use, and Innovation' to create awareness and culture change. Amongst other achievements, he has developed a strategy to improve CHP efficiency. This now forms part of the company’s renewable energy investment strategy and results will be shared across the industry.

IES Vice President and award presenter on the evening, Professor Carolyn Roberts CEnv, said of the announcement:

“Every year we meet amazing people in the environmental professions – people who do great things to improve the world we live in, to make it more sustainable. Our 2018 winner, Graham Powell CEnv of Anglian Water, is an outstanding example of an amazing person who works across the boundaries to manage water, waste, energy and carbon emissions concurrently. That’s what we need to secure genuine environmental improvements.”

The award is presented to Chartered Environmentalists (CEnv) and Registered Environmental Technicians (REnvTech) from any sector, division or Constituent Body. This year's nominations showed a very high standard that was reflected in the winner, the runner up, and three highly commended finalists.

The award presentation was the finale of the night that kicked off with a series of talks from expert speakers: Professor Ian Boyd, Defra; Stephanie McGibbon, Arup; and Dr Costa Velis University of Leeds.