The Cold Storage Operator of the Year Award is for any business operating a frozen or chilled cold store, or multiple cold stores, who have taken measures to reduce the overall environmental footprint of their building/s.

This award is about recognising the cold storage business who has led the way in assessing and acting on their climate impact in the calendar year of 2026.

The judges will be looking for compelling evidence on strategic decisions made by the company, including:

• Research and investment into better understanding the carbon footprint of the site, including setting own targets for carbon reduction.
• Specific innovations and practical measures implemented to reduce emission, with extra weight given to pioneering technologies. Examples could include renewable energy installation, upgrades to cold store fabric or infrastructure, initiatives to reduce plastic us etc.
• Initiatives undertaken with staff to promote the need to be sustainable, including addition of electric chargers, reducing water or plastic use or other measures to help staff reduce their own carbon footprint.
• Work undertaken with suppliers and customers to assess and act on supply chain emissions.
• Any commitment to standards or accreditations for carbon reduction, eg. B Corp, Carbon Trust, Planet Mark.

Note to applicants: although this award is for cold storage, the judges recognise there may be overlap with the Refrigerated Transport Operator 2027 award. If measures have been taken at the site to reduce emissions for transportation, eg. installing electric plugins for your TRUs, this can be used as evidence for both awards.

The Refrigerated Transport Operator of the Year Award is for operators of all sizes who have taken measures to reduce the overall environmental footprint of their fleet of temperature-controlled vehicles.

This award is about recognising the business who has led the way in assessing and acting on the climate impact of their temperature-controlled vehicle fleet in the calendar year of 2026. Strong weighting will be applied to measures directly related to transport refrigeration, but evidence of reducing emissions from HGVs and other vehicles is also welcomed.

The judges will be looking for compelling evidence on strategic decisions made by the company, including:

• Research and investment into better understanding the carbon footprint of vehicles, including setting own targets for carbon reduction and improved air quality.
• Specific innovations and practical measures implemented to reduce emissions from temperature-controlled fleets, with extra weight given to pioneering technologies. Examples could include trialling or purchasing diesel free, and/or low GWP refrigerant Transport Refrigeration Units or rigid vehicles, significant investments in cleaner fuels or hybrid solutions to diesel, investments in supporting infrastructure, such as standby charging and other fleet investment.
• Initiatives undertaken with drivers to reduce fuel usage in transport refrigeration, such as training on door opening, prechilling etc.
• Work undertaken with suppliers and customers to assess and act on supply chain emissions from transport operations.
• Any commitment to standards or accreditations for carbon reduction, eg. B Corp, Carbon Trust, Planet Mark.
  

The Sustainable Supplier of the Year award is for any business providing a service, product or other supporting function to the temperature-controlled logistics industry. This award is about recognising the business who has led the way in assessing and acting on the climate impact of their business, as well as supporting their customers in the temperature-controlled logistics industry to act on their own emissions. The judges will be looking for compelling evidence on strategic decisions made by the company, including:

• Research and investment into better understanding the carbon footprint of their company.
• Specific innovations and practical measures implemented to reduce emissions from their own controlled operation, for example reducing emissions from manufacturing, buildings or transport. The judges will be looking for multiple examples demonstrating a culture of sustainability. There is a separate award, Sustainable Business Initiative, for specific examples of best practice. 
• Work undertaken with suppliers and customers to support wider sustainability improvements in the cold chain industry. The judges will be looking for a business wide culture of working with customers on emissions reductions, there is a separate award, Sustainable Partnership Project, for specific examples of best practice. 
• Any commitment to standards or accreditations for carbon reduction, eg. B Corp, Carbon Trust, Planet Mark.
  

The Cold Store of the Year award is for any cold store facility either improved (if existing site) or completed (if new build) in 2026 to an industry leading standard of sustainability performance. The judging panel will be looking for compelling evidence on specific decisions and actions made by the company to either specify a new build cold store to the highest standards for sustainability or to achieve a demonstratable improvement in the performance of an existing store.

We are looking for evidence of:

• Research and investment into understanding the climate impact of the site. You may wish to reference performance under the Climate Change Agreement Scheme or the CCF’s Energy Benchmarking Scheme where applicable.
• Practical measures implemented, such as technology or improvements implemented and their specific impact on emissions from the site.
• Evidence should show a consideration of the key environmental impact areas in cold storage such as energy efficiency and refrigerant gas emissions.
• An energy management strategy towards procurement of energy and consideration of renewable generation and/or storage. 
• Initiatives undertaken with staff to promote best practice in energy management housekeeping. 
• Any commitment to standards or accreditations such as LEED, BREEAM etc.

Note to applicants: this award recognises improvements to an individual cold storage site. If you operate multiple sites you may want to consider applying for the ‘Sustainable Cold Storage Operator of the Year’ award.

The Sustainable Innovation: Cold Storage Award is for the product or service new to the market in 2026 which will reduce the climate impact of cold storage. This award is about recognising the specific product or service either introduced to the market or which has made a major breakthrough during 2026 to drive demonstrable change in the sustainability of cold storage in the UK.

The judges will be looking for compelling evidence on the impact and potential of the innovation, including:

• Clear description of the innovation and how it will improve sustainability in the cold chain.
• Details of testing, or customer trials and their results.
• Other customer feedback and testimonials.
• Details of market penetration (sales or presales) and an assessment of how the innovation can be rolled out across the industry.
• Grants awarded or other recognition from the industry and beyond.
  

The Sustainable Innovation: Refrigerated Transport Award is for the product or service new to the market in 2026 which will reduce the climate impact of refrigerated transport. This award is about recognising the specific product or service either introduced to the market or which has made a major breakthrough during 2026 in driving demonstrable improvement in transport refrigeration sustainability.

The judges will be looking for compelling evidence on the impact and potential of the innovation, including: 

• Clear description of the innovation and how it will reduce emissions from transport refrigeration units.
• Details of testing, or customer trials and their results.
• Other customer feedback and testimonials.
• Details of market penetration (sales or presales) and an assessment of how the innovation can be rolled out across the industry.
• Grants awarded or other recognition from the industry and beyond.
  

The Business Sustainability Initiative Award is for a specific business initiative implemented in 2026, which has driven awareness of climate issues within the company. It is open to all businesses across the cold chain in the UK and Ireland. This award is about recognising an initiative introduced by a business in 2026 which has, or will, lead to a lower business climate impact. This could include the introduction of a sustainability strategy, employee engagement programme, awareness campaign, behavioural change initiative or commitment to environment improvements (e.g. tree planting, water saving or other offsetting) that has helped create a more sustainable business culture.

Entries should include information on:

• Full details of the initiative introduced, and its intended impact on sustainability.
• Evidence of involvement of employees during the design and implementation of the initiative.
• The impact the initiative has had on employees awareness, engagement or behaviour change.
  

The Cold Chain Climate Champion Award recognises individuals in any role across the cold chain who have demonstrated a commitment to driving sustainability within their business and/or for their customers. This award is about recognising the individual who has gone the extra mile to drive demonstrable change in their business’s climate impact or significantly changed attitudes to sustainability across their network.

The judges will be looking for compelling evidence on specific actions undertaken by the nominee, including:

• Research or initiatives to quantify business climate impact and/or which has led, or will lead to, a reduction in the applying business’s direct carbon emissions.
• Action to raise awareness of sustainability issues within their business, such as water savings, plastics reductions or other resource efficiency.
• Work undertaken with suppliers and customers to support the assessment of wider supply chain emissions or environmental impact.
• References or positive feedback from manager, colleagues or customers.
  

The Sustainable Partnership Project Award is for a specific project, involving at least two businesses, which demonstrates an industry leading example of collaboration to achieve environmental improvements in the cold chain. This award is about recognising the importance of partnerships in delivering sustainability focussed projects. We are looking for examples of projects delivered in 2026 which demonstrate an innovative partnership approach to delivering emissions reductions in any part of the cold chain.

The judges will be looking for compelling evidence on the impact and potential of the project and how effective collaboration enhanced the results:

• Clear description of the project and quantitative assessment of how it will impact emissions in the cold chain.
• Full details of how a partnership approach was followed, the role of each business, decisions made as a collective and how the partnership led to a better outcome for the environment.
• Evidence of an innovative or pioneering approach, facilitated by working in partnership.
• Scalability of the approach to future projects.