The University of Exeter’s Centre for Resilience in Environment, Water and Waste (CREWW) has won the Sustainable Lab of the Year Award at the Lab Innovation Awards 2024 in recognition of its eco-friendly achievements.

CREWW is a ground-breaking partnership between South West Water and University of Exeter and a first of its kind in the water sector.

It includes state-of-the-art laboratories, such as a pioneering microplastics lab, and the building itself is a living laboratory where energy and water efficiency are continuously monitored, analysed, and optimised to continue to be net zero in operation.

The award recognised the positive culture of sustainability displayed by all staff, whose hard work saw them awarded Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) Gold award within two months of the building opening in March last year.

Located on the university’s Steatham campus, South West Water is investing £21m into CREWW, recognising that the need for collaboration on important environmental issues has never been greater.

Richard Brazier, CREWW co-director and Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Exeter, said: “CREWW is bringing together the best minds from across multiple disciplines at the University of Exeter with industry experts at South West Water to develop a shared understanding of water sector issues, so that we can co-create engineering, nature, economic, and behaviour-based solutions that will make a lasting positive impact to communities and ecosystems around the world.

“We are delighted to win this prestigious award that celebrates the outstanding innovation and sustainability of the CREWW building on our Streatham Campus.

“It is wonderful recognition of our positive culture of sustainability in our CREWW laboratories.”