Four entries have been shortlisted entries for the John Connell Sustainable Development Award 2026, sponsored by the Association of Noise Consultants NC and ANV Measurement Systems.
The award recognises innovative solutions that reduce noise or improve sound while delivering environmental, social and economic benefits.
Gloria Elliott OBE, Chief Executive of the Noise Abatement Society, which organises the John Connell Awards, said: “This award champions solutions to support health-promoting sound environments and sustainable placemaking – benefiting society, the environment and the economy.”
Now in its second year, its broad remit reflects the ANC’s view that acoustics has a much wider role to play in sustainability, from nature-based mitigation and decarbonisation to health, inclusion and sustainable placemaking.
ANC Chair Ismail Alli-Balogun said: “The four short-listed projects apply acoustic science to nature-based infrastructure, social inclusion, decarbonisation and sustainable urban development, illustrating the breadth of approaches the ANC seeks to encourage through its sponsorship of the award.
“The shortlist demonstrates exactly why the Sustainable Development Award was established.
“Sustainability in acoustics encompasses far more than reducing carbon or specifying lower-impact materials.
“It can mean retaining natural infrastructure, designing for health and inclusion, removing unnecessary barriers to low-carbon technologies, or using acoustic design to reconcile competing urban uses.”
“The ANC Sustainability Committee is supporting this wider perspective through guidance aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the UNEP Frontiers Report, which identified noise as one of the key emerging environmental challenges.
“The organisation’s objective is to help acousticians consider both the direct environmental impacts of their professional practice and the wider consequences of the advice and solutions they provide.
The shortlisted projects will be presented at the John Connell Awards at the Palace of Westminster on 21 October 2026, when the winner will be announced.
The finalists (listed in alphabetical order) are: –
Domestic Air Source Heat Pumps Professional Advice Note
The Domestic Air Source Heat Pumps Professional Advice Note tackles a different sustainability challenge – removing unnecessary acoustic barriers to domestic decarbonisation.
Air Source Heat Pumps are essential to the 2050 UK net zero target. But noise continues to be a barrier to the government’s ambition to install 600,00 installations a year by 2030.
The Domestic Air Source Heat Pumps Professional Advice Note, produced by a joint IOA/CIEH working group with ANC collaboration, allows suitable heat-pump installations to progress without disproportionate assessment costs or delay, while retaining defined acoustic safeguards.
Grievesons Yard, Newcastle upon Tyne
Apex Acoustics Ltd and Sustainable Acoustics Ltd have developed an acoustic strategy enabling 83 new homes to sit alongside The Cumberland Arms, a grassroots live-music venue, and Off Quay practice rooms in Newcastle’s Ouseburn Valley.
Here, the building massing is itself the noise barrier. Five-storey development shields a quieter courtyard, dual-aspect homes retain access to a quieter façade, and noise is controlled at source.
The project turns a long-standing acoustic constraint into a model for sustainable urban coexistence, unlocking brownfield housing while protecting an established cultural venue and its night-time economy.
South Wales Trunk Road Agent – Vegetation Attenuation Noise Study
The SWTRA Vegetation Attenuation Noise Study, undertaken by AtkinsRéalis, addressed a fundamental evidence gap in environmental acoustics – the extent to which roadside vegetation can provide quantifiable traffic-noise attenuation.
Across 16 sites, the study combined field measurement, Calculation of Road Traffic Noise (CRTN) modelling and a new vegetation-classification methodology to create the UK’s first comprehensive dataset on the acoustic performance of roadside vegetation.
The result is a way to treat roadside vegetation as a multifunctional environmental asset, retaining biodiversity, sequestering carbon and reducing noise, rather than simply a maintenance liability. It could also reduce reliance on engineered noise barriers.
Sustainable, Equitable Acoustic Adaptations for Community Care Integration
Sustainable Acoustic’s approach bridged environmental science and social equity, using acoustics to improve life.
The short-listed project addressed a complex noise problem involving involuntary vocalisations associated with autism and Tourette syndrome in a residential care setting, resulting in noise complaints and the prospect for the tenant of statutory enforcement.
Rather than treating the sound as a nuisance to be removed, they developed an integrated acoustic, clinical and operational framework designed to enable inclusion.
