A HAMPSHIRE distillery due to open later this year has been presented with a prestigious award for its architectural design.

Architects’ plans for the Bombay Sapphire gin distillery at Laverstoke Mill received the BREEAM Award for Industrial Design at a ceremony held during the Ecobuild Conference at the London ExCel Centre.

BREEAM, the most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings, sets the standard for best practice in sustainable design.

Nik Fordham, master distiller at Laverstoke Mill, said: “Sustainability is vitally important to Bombay Sapphire and has underpinned all of our plans for the distillery. As such, we were delighted to win the 2014 BREEAM Award for Industrial Design.

“BREEAM has kept sustainability high up on the agenda and has provided a benchmarking mechanism that feeds into our corporate sustainability policy and key performance indicators. Fundamentally, we also believe building such a sustainable distillery makes financial sense, increasing efficiency and long term operational energy and water use savings.”

The distillery is situated within a conservation area and site of special scientific interest (SSSI) in rural Hampshire. For over 225 years Laverstoke Mill was a hand-crafted paper mill that printed the watermarked banknote paper for the Bank of England.

Last year, it became the first distillery and first refurbishment to achieve an ‘outstanding’ design-stage BREEAM accreditation for its distillery process buildings. Competing against several other sustainable construction projects the distillery has been recognised as a leading example of industrial design demonstrating a holistic approach to the environmental aspects of its design and construction.

Barry Rankin, director at GWP Project Services, and consultant on the project added: “This award is a tribute to the entire team. All parties have worked with great care and collaboration to ensure the most cutting-edge sustainable technologies have been woven into the imaginative design and construction of Laverstoke Mill. The result will prove to be a world-class distillery that reflects the values of the Bombay Sapphire.”