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How the judging is done
The Best Practice Award is a bit different from all the others. It is not based on growth in profit, increased turnover, an explosion of staff, high-profile schemes or the launching of offices across the country. Rather, it is about those often intangible aspects of running a business that are arguably more important than money or status.

These take in:

• health and safety
  
• partnering
  
• sustainability
  
• supply chain management
  
• off-site manufacture
  
• knowledge management
  
• training and employee care
  
• consideration for communities

… among many other practices. We're talking about the sort of firms that have not only read and thought about the principles in reports such as Rethinking Construction and Accelerating Change – they're actually implementing them, every day. What's more, they've probably come up with a few of their own.

To find this year's Best Practice Award winner, Brian Moone, director of Best Practice Knowledge at Constructing Excellence, went through every entry for each category with a fine-tooth comb. He was looking for really outstanding firms from all disciplines that are really making a difference. And he found them.

The top performers
Many contractors had taken on board Egan principles and launched sustainability programmes, but one that stood out was Midas. Living up to its name, this contractor now has about £100m of business in long-term framework agreements over the next five years – a fantastic example of partnering paying off.

Rising above the other consultants was recently rebranded Davis Langdon. A finalist in the project manager category this year, it demonstrated a laudable commitment to supply chain management.

And the housebuilder that impressed most was Countryside, which among other accolades boasts a listing on the FTSE4Good index and a place in The Sunday Times' top 100 best firms to work for.

Winner
Forticrete
But even in dazzling light of all the above, one company shone through. This concrete block and masonry manufacturer demonstrated commitment to: partnering, with established supply chains in place; lean construction and value-engineering, with reuse of discarded materials and collaboration with suppliers to drive out waste; sustainability, with its energy-efficient products and processes … the list goes on. This firm has training partnerships with its suppliers to help ease the skills shortage, is an active member of Constructing Excellence Best Practice Clubs, and is dedicated to impeccable health and safety standards both on its own premises and on site. Not only that, it has established an off-site manufacturing division – F1 Systems – which offers the industry prefabricated innovations and drives the firm's lean construction philosophy.