World Demolition Awards - shortlists announced

After careful consideration by the international judging panel, the shortlists for the 2010 World Demolition Awards can be announced. Demolition companies from eight countries and three continents have been shortlisted for this year's awards, which take place in Amsterdam on November 5. In brief, the shortlists, in alphabetical order, are:

Contractor of the Year Award - American DND, Cantillon, Cuddy Group, EDS, Erith Group and General Smontaggi

Contract of the Year Award - Armac, Cuddy Group, Despe SpA, EDS, Lawson Demolition and NASDI

Explosive Demolition Award - AED, American DND/Controlled Demolition Inc, CAEM, Eurovia, Fabio Bruno and TDS

Industrial Demolition Award - City Demolition, Despe SpA, Erith Group, General Smontaggi, Lee Group, Montalbetti and R Baker

Urban Demolition Award - Despe SpA, Erith Group, General Smontaggi, Porr Umweitechnik, S G Loewendick and Schijf Group

Civils Demolition Award - Armac, City Demolition and Despe SpA

Demolition Safety Award - American DND/Controlled Demolition Inc, Cantillon, Despe SpA, Dorton Group, General Smontaggi, Lloyds Construction Services, O'Rourke Wrecking and R Baker & Son

Demolition Training Award - Cuddy Group, Despe SpA, Dorton Group, Erith Group, Maylarch and O'Rourke Wrecking

Environmental & Recycling Award - Cherry Demolition, Despe SpA, General Smontaggi, Interior Removal Specialists Inc and NKR Demolition

Innovation Award: Series - Caterpillar SARL, Komatsu, Liebherr, LST, Powerscreen, Sagro and Volvo Construction Equipment

Innovation Award: Custom - Kocurek, Liebherr and Van Vliet

Customer Service/Support Award - Liebherr and Powerscreen

If you entered this year's awards but missed out on being shortlisted by the judging panel, you can take some comfort from the fact the standard of entries we received was extremely high across the board.

The judging process

The international judging panel faced a major challenge in determining the most deserving entries received from around the world but have laboured hard. During their deliberations, aside from ensuring that entries met the criteria laid down for each of the award categories and evaluating their relative merits, the judges were governed by two key requirements.

First, if an individual judge's own company submitted entries to the awards, that individual judge was automatically excluded from the judging process for the relevant categories, as well as from any discussions centred around those specific categories. This procedure has been adopted to ensure that there could be no possible perceived conflict of interest.

Second, since the D&Ri World Demolition Awards are open to all demolition contractors, entries are to be judged solely on their individual merit. No other factors, such as membership of national demolition associations (or non-membership), were to be considered when entries were evaluated.

Both of the above requirements will also apply to the final judging meeting that will determine the eventual winners of each individual award category.

From their initial inception, D&Ri has always intended that the World Demolition Awards recognise the skill and achievements of the demolition industry worldwide. To achieve this, we always knew that the judging process has to be carried out by recognised industry experts in a manner that was seen to be open and fair to all, and in a manner that reflects the nature of our readership - this we believe we have achieved.

The World Demolition Awards form part of the World Demolition Summit, which takes place at the Hotel Okura in Amsterdam on 5 November. For further information about the Summit and to book your tickets, please go to www.demolitionsummit.com.