APM proud to recognise Project of the Year at SME MK and Buckinghamshire Business Awards

Association for Project Management (APM), the chartered body for the project profession, presented the award for Project of the Year to Eco Design Consultants at the SME MK and Buckinghamshire Business Awards. The SME MK and Buckinghamshire Business Awards celebrate the achievements of local Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which have 250 employees or less.

Eco Design Consultants – a chartered architectural practice whose designs have minimal impact on the environment – were named the Gold winners in the category in recognition of their project to analyse the carbon requirement of retrofitting buildings to make them more environmentally friendly.

The Milton Keynes Safety Centre, known as ‘Hazard Alley’ – the first purpose-built interactive education centre for children in the UK – was named Silver winner in the category for their project to implement a new customer relationship management system.

APM was a platinum sponsor of the Awards and helped to developed and judge the new ‘Project of the Year’ category to help recognise the contribution of the project profession to the local and national economy. Research by APM has found that project management adds £156.5 billion of value to the UK economy annually and employs 2.13 million full-time equivalent workers.

Faye Thomassen, head of marketing at APM, attended the awards ceremony. She said: “As the membership body representing the entire project profession, we felt that supporting this celebration of small and medium enterprises was of importance to APM due to our ongoing commitment to support and champion SMEs.

“These awards give recognition to the achievements of local businesses in the Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire area. Having a dedicated category for Project of the Year reflects the power of projects to deliver meaningful change for societal benefit.”

On receiving the award, Alan Budden, director at Eco Design Consultants, said: “It’s really fantastic to win. The environment is really important and thanks to you for recognising that.”