RLB Digital wins Information Management Best Practice at the Digital Construction Awards
19 March 2026
ONE Creative Environments wins Asset Management Best Practice at the Digital Construction Awards
19 March 2026
ONE Creative Environments won the Asset Management Best Practice category at the Digital Construction Awards last night (18 March) for its work with Plymouth CAST.
Plymouth CAST multi-academy trust manages a dispersed estate of 35 schools across Devon and Cornwall, many of which face the challenges common to older educational buildings, such as ageing infrastructure, escalating energy costs, dispersed data and inconsistent compliance management.
The trust also faced operational inefficiencies and was under pressure to meet net-zero targets, align with the Department for Education’s emerging Estate Management Level 4 standards, and deliver more efficient, transparent and accountable estate management – all within constrained budgets and limited internal technical capacity.
The core challenge lay in connecting fragmented asset data, processes and systems into a single, coherent framework that could support both day-to-day FM and strategic estate planning.
What the judges said
“This is exactly what the industry needs: a scalable, user-focused, data-driven model that works within the budget constraints of the public sector.”
The smart assets team at multidisciplinary consultancy ONE Creative Environments identified that the key to solving these challenges was not simply technology, but a strategic and human-centred approach to digital transformation. By combining digital twin technology with clear information requirements and a co-created delivery model, ONE aimed to redefine how an education trust could manage, maintain and future-proof its estate.
The project began with a pilot across two representative schools, enabling Plymouth CAST to test real-time monitoring, compliance workflows and asset data integration in live conditions. The model proved measurable benefits, from reduced administrative burden to clearer energy insights, and was approved for roll-out across all 35 schools.
ONE integrated new tools with Plymouth CAST’s existing systems, including CAFM, BMS and energy monitoring platforms. This eliminated vendor lock-in, extended system lifespans and future-proofed the solution for evolving technologies.
The project has delivered many quantifiable benefits, among them:
- reactive maintenance costs were reduced significantly thanks to improved visibility, smarter scheduling and proactive asset management;
- schools saved a significant number of days of staff time annually, realising trust‑wide savings from reduced paperwork, streamlined contractor coordination and automated compliance workflows; and
- real‑time monitoring enabled more efficient energy management, allowing data‑driven reductions and early detection of underperforming assets.
Other finalists
- Auro Door | Harmony Fire
- Digital enterprise asset management of the MoD Estate | MACS and Defence Infrastructure Organisation
- Digital twins for education estate management | ONE Creative Environments/Plymouth CAST
- Halve the Half: the no- and low-cost opportunity to reduce cost and carbon | Cardiff Metropolitan University
Following successful pilots, the approach is now being scaled across all 35 schools. The project is already attracting interest from other multi-academy trusts, local authorities and the Department for Education, which recognises its potential as a replicable blueprint for digital estate transformation across the education sector.
The Digital Construction Awards are organised by Digital Construction Week, the Chartered Institute of Building, DC+ and Construction Management. Read about the rest of the winners.
To find out more about the Awards and enquire about sponsorship or entering next year’s event, visit digitalconstructionawards.co.uk.
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