Scottish cleantech building materials company Kenoteq has been nominated for the Earthshot Prize 2025, Prince William’s prestigious global environmental award that offers £1 million to groundbreaking solutions that address the world’s greatest environmental challenges.
Kenoteq’s nomination comes from two heavyweight supporters in the industry – global engineering consultancy Arup and the Royal Academy of Engineering, positioning Kenoteq among the world’s most promising environmental innovations competing for the Prize’s five £1 million awards.
The nomination recognises Kenoteq’s revolutionary K-BRIQ, one of the world’s most sustainable building bricks, made from nearly 100% recycled construction waste and recently certified by the British Board of Agrément (BBA), the UK’s leading construction certification body.
The unfired brick has a very low carbon footprint, producing around 95% less carbon emissions than clay bricks and represents a genuine circular economy solution by turning construction waste back into a primary building material – plus, the K-Briq can be recycled itself.
Founded by HRH Prince William in 2020, the Earthshot Prize awards £1 million annually to five winners working towards five critical environmental goals: Build a waste free world, Protect and restore nature, Fix our climate, Revive our oceans, and Clean our air. Over its first three years, the Prize has attracted over 3,000 nominations from 125 countries and supported 45 groundbreaking environmental solutions with £15 million in funding and over £50 million in additional catalysed investment.
Patrick Woodcock, prize project manager at the Royal Academy of Engineering, said: “We’re proud to have nominated Kenoteq – as one of 24 organisations championed by the Academy – for their bold solutions to global sustainability challenges for the 2025 Earthshot Prize. With the support of our Enterprise Hub, Kenoteq has grown to embody a company driving real environmental impact by turning construction waste into one of the world’s most sustainable building materials. We believe all our nominees have the innovation, creativity and ambition needed to tackle the climate crisis and we wish them all the best of luck.”
The K-BRIQ addresses significant environmental challenges facing the global construction industry. Construction, demolition and excavation waste accounts for approximately 60-65% of total waste generated in the UK, with more than a third of global landfill waste estimated to be of demolition and construction origin. Meanwhile, embodied carbon can account for over 50% of a building’s total carbon footprint.
In a standard two-bedroom UK house requiring 12,000 bricks, switching to K-BRIQs would slash carbon emissions from 5.46 tonnes to 0.2 tonnes of CO2e – the equivalent of taking a petrol-powered car off the road for an entire year. As Europe’s largest market for bricks, the UK uses around 2.5 billion bricks annually, creating enormous potential for environmental impact at scale.
Sam Chapman, co-founder and executive director of Kenoteq, said: “Being nominated for the Earthshot Prize is fantastic recognition for our team’s work in developing a truly transformative solution to construction’s environmental crisis. Unlike approaches that simply treat the symptoms of the industry’s environmental impact, the K-BRIQ addresses the root cause by utilising industry waste to deliver a product that performs exactly like clay bricks.
“The construction industry is under increasing pressure to reduce its environmental impact while maintaining high standards of quality and safety. Our nomination demonstrates that these goals are not mutually exclusive – we can build better while building greener. This global recognition will help us scale our impact and work towards a more sustainable future for construction.”
Kenoteq’s East Lothian facility near Edinburgh is currently able to produce two million bricks annually, with capacity to double production to four million as demand grows. The company has already secured dual international certification through the BBA and the prestigious DrJ Technical Evaluation Report (TER) for the United States market, with European certification underway.
Early adopter projects across the UK and Europe have showcased the K-BRIQ’s capabilities, including installations at Scotland’s National Retrofit Centre, Oaklands College in St Albans, a sustainability-blueprint hypermarket in Germany, and the fast-growing Gail’s Bakery chain.
The five 2025 Earthshot Prize winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on 5 November at the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro – the first time the Prize will be held in Latin America.
