As a long-standing partner of NECCUS – Scotland’s alliance for industrial decarbonisation – we were delighted to be asked to design the inaugural NECCUS Young Professional Award, celebrating young people making an impact communicating Scotland’s Net Zero challenge.

The award was unveiled at the DeCarbScotland Conference & Dinner 2024, NECCUS’s annual flagship event, which we also design and deliver. With sustainability central to the brief, we chose slate as our material of choice – hardy, long-lasting, and requiring no chemical or heat treatment. Additionally, slate closely resembles the capstone used to seal CO₂ injection sites, acknowledging NECCUS’s role in carbon capture and storage. The award was manufactured by Gaudio, a specialist Gloustershire-based trophy maker.

The award has now been presented at two consecutive DeCarbScotland events:

• 2024 at Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh: presented to Doğa Şatır by Neil Gray MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy.

• 2025 at John McIntyre Conference Centre, Edinburgh: presented to Kairvee Tyagi by Dr Alasdair Allan MSP, Acting Minister for Climate Action.

Taking creative inspiration from the triangle in the NECCUS logo, which symbolises collaboration across industry, academia and government, we used a modified triangular prism as the basis of the design. As explained by our Creative Director and Deputy CEO James Anderson, “every facet was crafted to ensure clarity and elegance”.