2023 Green Award Winners Announced

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Urban League of London is pleased to announce the winners of our Green Brick and Green Umbrella Awards! These annual awards recognize exceptional individuals and outstanding developments in the City of London. Past winners include Jane Bigelow, Todd Sleeper, Wood St. Food Forest and Covent Garden Market.

Since 1975 the Green Umbrella Award has recognized an individual, or occasionally an organization, demonstrating outstanding community citizenship and leadership in the city of London, as evidenced by a significant body of work. This year’s winner is Heenal Rajani and Kara Rijnen.

Photos courtesy of Heenal Rajani and Kara Rijnen, and Mary Anne Hodge.

The Urban League started giving Green Brick awards in 1984 to recognize an outstanding built form project in the city, usually where the development has engaged members of the community at both the planning and development stages of the project. This year’s winner is Indwell’s Embassy Commons.

Photos courtesy of Indwell’s Embassy Commons.

Award winners will be honoured at the Urban League 2023 Annual General Meeting, happening on June 21, 2023 at Aeolian Hall from 7:00–9:00pm. This event is free to attend, and all are welcome.

The Urban League is an umbrella organization representing more than 40 neighbourhood and community associations in London. Strong and connected communities are the building blocks of a vital, equitable and sustainable city. For over 50 years the Urban League has been working to engage and inform Londoners to improve and connect our city.

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Please direct any media inquiries to Morena Hernandez.

ABOUT THE WINNERS

Green Umbrella - Heenal Rajani and Kara Rijnen

Heenal and Kara are a husband and wife team whose love story began in a Guatemalan village while helping build a school with eco-bricks. Since childhood they have felt moved by the injustices of the world and compelled to make the Earth better than when they came into it.

Kara, an advocate for zero-waste living and a mother of four, chose to leave a 15-year real estate career to forge a new path that afforded her more fulfilment and purpose. Heenal, a facilitator and poet, left a public service and trade union career in England in 2009 to go travelling. A year after getting married in 2017, Kara and Heenal launched Reimagine Co as an experiment, thanks to wonderful support from their community.

As well as being London's only package-free grocery store, Reimagine operates a Thing Library, hosts Repair Cafés, has offered over one hundred free workshops, empowers London festivals to reduce their waste, helped to coordinate community celebrations including 100 in 1 Day and Earthfest, and collaborates with many community partners.

Heenal and Kara’s work is a response to the call of their community and the planet. They are deeply grateful for the privilege to serve, to work with amazing and inspirational organizations and people, and to be part of an ongoing dialogue about sustainability, community, and a future that everyone deserves.

Green Brick - Indwell Embassy Commons

Indwell’s Embassy Commons is an apartment community that offers 72 deeply affordable one and two bedroom units. Located in London’s Old East Village, the building was designed by Invizij Architects and built by Graceview Enterprises. Energy consulting and solar PV design was by Zon Engineering. Indwell offers onsite supports like nursing and food security to its tenants, many of whom have struggled with housing stability. Ground floor commercial businesses contribute to the vibrancy of the neighbourhood, and include the Squeaky Wheel Bike Co-op and Edgar and Joe’s Café. Embassy Commons is built to the highly energy efficient Passive House standard and consumes 63% less carbon than a similar building built to code (8 kg C02/m2). On the roof is a 91.8kwh photovoltaic system with 216 solar panels. The building opened in 2022.