Star Refrigeration's Olivia Brown recognised at CeeD Awards 2026 for sustainability leadership

GLASGOW, Scotland, March 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Star Refrigeration is celebrating the success of Sustainability Project Lead Intern Olivia Brown, who has been named joint winner of the Engaging Talent Award at the CeeD Industry Awards alongside Cameron Fordyce of the University of Glasgow with industry partner Nami Surgical.

The awards, organised by CeeD a Scottish industry network that connects businesses, universities and the public sector to drive collaboration and innovation across engineering and manufacturing, took place on 5 March at the Hilton Glasgow Hotel.

The Engaging Talent Award recognises undergraduate students who demonstrate exceptional collaboration between industry and academia through practical engineering or technical projects. Olivia, an Environmental Management student at Glasgow Caledonian University, works with Star Refrigeration through the company's Star Academy term-time internship programme, spending one day per week in the business during term time and working more extensively during university holidays, applying her studies directly within industry.

In her role as Sustainability Project Lead Intern, Olivia has played a key role in progressing Star Refrigeration's sustainability strategy. Her work has involved engaging colleagues from across the organisation to identify priorities and translate them into actionable activities to support the company's long-term environmental commitments.

Star Refrigeration's Sustainability Strategy aligns the business with all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, with particular focus on clean energy, climate action, responsible consumption and decent work. It is led at executive level and embedded within an ISO 14001 certified management system, ensuring consistent measurement, reporting and continuous improvement, with a clear focus on the lifetime energy performance of the systems we design and support.

Olivia has helped introduce practical initiatives across the business, including improvements to waste management systems and the development of internal sustainability training for employees. Her work also contributed to Star's EcoVadis sustainability assessment, where the company improved its performance and achieved a position within the top 15% of companies globally.

The award was shared with Cameron Fordyce, a University of Glasgow student and intern at Booth Welsh, recognised for his work developing a digital image correlation system to measure ultrasonic vibrations in surgical tools as part of an engineering research project carried out in collaboration with industry.

Prof. Dave Pearson, Group Sustainable Development Director at Star Refrigeration and Olivia's mentor through the programme, said:

"We took a gamble in establishing a term-time internship, but Olivia has rewarded us handsomely. She has exceeded our expectations and delivered as if she were a full-time member of the team with years of experience.

"Her work has helped turn sustainability into a more structured, actionable function embedded across the business."

Olivia Brown said,

"I'm very proud to have carried out this work while studying at Glasgow Caledonian University and to have had the opportunity to help further develop and embed sustainability within Star Refrigeration during that time.

"I'm incredibly grateful to everyone at Star for their support, and especially to Dave Pearson for the mentorship and encouragement to develop this work alongside my studies." Through initiatives such as the Star Academy programme, Star Refrigeration continues to strengthen links between industry and universities, helping students gain practical experience while contributing fresh ideas and perspectives to real-world engineering and sustainability challenges.

The CeeD Awards ceremony brought together leaders from across Scotland's engineering, manufacturing and innovation sectors, including Richard Lochhead, Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade, and Ivan McKee, Minister for Public Finance.

As part of the event, Star Refrigeration also sponsored the Net Zero Heroes Award, which was won by fellow CeeD member Celtic Renewables for its work developing bio-based chemicals from industrial by-products, helping reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

Prof. Dave Pearson, said,

"We were proud to sponsor the Net Zero Heroes category and to see Celtic Renewables recognised for the important work they are doing to develop alternatives to fossil-based chemicals. Innovation of this kind will play an important role in Scotland's transition to a low-carbon economy."

The Engaging Talent Award was established in memory of Euan Thomson, a respected Star Refrigeration engineer whose enthusiasm for engineering and collaboration left a lasting impact on colleagues and industry partners.

To find out more about the CeeD Awards, visit https://ceedawards.ceed-scotland.com/

SOURCE Star Refrigeration