Harrogate's Skipton Road Tesco won the RICS UK Environmental Impact award on 22 October: timber frame, 20% solar power, a 32% whole-life carbon saving.

Harrogate’s Tesco superstore on Skipton Road has been named the best environmental project in the UK by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

The store won the Environmental Impact Award at the RICS UK Awards 2026 Grand Final. The ceremony was held in London on Thursday 22 October. Tesco calls the building its “low carbon concept store”, and it opened in December 2025.

It was one of five projects shortlisted nationally in the category. Two came from Yorkshire: the Harrogate store and a student housing project in Hull, according to RICS’s preview of the finalists.

What made the building different

RICS published the carbon savings the project team achieved, against a conventional build:

Measure Reduction
Upfront embodied carbon 28%
Operational emissions 36%
In-use and end-of-life emissions 3%
Total whole-life carbon 32%

The features behind those numbers, as described by Tesco and RICS:

  • a timber frame, which Tesco says emits less carbon in construction than steel
  • a recycled concrete slab
  • solar panels expected to supply 20% of the store’s electricity
  • rainwater harvesting
  • reused stone from a local stoneyard
  • lower-energy heating, lighting and refrigeration

RICS also noted that the site was brownfield land that needed complex remediation, and that the team protected an existing wildlife habitat while building on it.

The judges’ citation says the building is playing “a key role in the new Pilot UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard”. Tesco aims to reach net zero across its own operations by 2035.

A garden from the Harrogate Flower Show

One part of the project is distinctly local. The team worked with Horticap, the Harrogate charity that trains adults with learning and other disabilities in horticulture and rural skills. Together they created a community garden and a quiet riverside space at the store.

The garden first went on show at the Harrogate Flower Show, where it won a gold award, RICS says. It was then moved permanently to the Skipton Road site.

The store

Tesco’s opening announcement gives the address as Skipton Road, HG1 3DW. It said the store created around 120 jobs. Opening hours are:

  • Monday to Saturday, 7am to 10pm
  • Sunday, 10am to 4pm

What it means for you

  • Shopping there: nothing changes. The award recognises how the building was designed and built.
  • Local groups: the store runs Tesco’s Stronger Starts grants, with £1,500, £1,000 and £500 awards each quarter decided by customers’ blue token votes. Groups working with children and families can apply or be nominated.
  • Food donations: the store has a permanent collection point for long-life food for the Trussell food bank network.

The project team named by RICS was Tesco with Rider Levett Bucknall, SSA Architects, Key Property Solutions, Summers Inman, Aecom, MRPP, Aspect Ecology, Transport Planning Associates and Pinnacle.