Celebrating success at the Building People Awards 2026

We’re proud to celebrate our award-winning team who were recognised at the NZIOB Building People Awards 2026.

Team members from our Auckland, Canterbury and Queenstown teams were recognised at the awards, winning the Innovation award and receiving highly commended awards for Collaboration and Health, Safety & Wellbeing. Additionally, Target Road School in Auckland won Project of the Year – Under $7.5m. These awards demonstrate the innovation present within our team, and the continuous drive to deliver quality for our clients and building users.

Target Road School, a Design & Build project delivered by our Auckland team won Project of the Year – Under $7.5m. The award recognised the collaborative leadership, proactive nature and commitment of the project team to create value for the client, the Ministry of Education. The project was successfully delivered eight weeks ahead of schedule and together, these aspects made them clear winners of the coveted award.

Kristy Jones, Sustainability Manager, won the Innovation award for her work on the Waste Report Case Study, Aotearoa’s largest study into the sources of construction waste. The research involved Kristy manually sorting 40 tonnes of waste from The Mill project, Queenstown, to understand what materials were being thrown away, where they came from and why they were being thrown away in the first place. Kristy’s report challenges the industry to rethink construction waste and act as a force for change. Read the report here.

Our Canterbury HSSQ Coordinator, Rebecca Hunter was Highly Commended in the Health, Safety & Wellbeing category. Rebecca has been a driving force behind stronger health, safety and wellbeing outcomes across the business. Her approach to inclusion, culture change, injury prevention and empowering site teams has made a lasting impact on both the Canterbury team and wider Cook Brothers team.

Finally, The Mill project delivered in Queenstown was Highly Commended in the Collaboration - Under $20m award. The complexity of delivering this mass timber building required multidisciplinary expertise including design, engineering, construction and fabrication, with each contributing alignment, trust and respect. The judges admired their commitment to open collaboration and coordination throughout the project. They also acknowledged the benefit of the team’s knowledge sharing post-completion which has opened the conversation to the opportunities and challenges of building in mass timber.

These accolades recognise the breadth of capability within our team, reflecting our focus on safety, complex technical delivery, effective collaboration and being at the forefront of change in the industry. Cook Brothers would like to thank all of the sponsors and the Building Institute Aotearoa for organising and hosting this fantastic industry event. We are proud to be part of an event which is focused on recognising the hard work, innovation and care, of people in the construction industry.