The region's most innovative businesses, residents and community groups were all applauded at the special event at the Queens Hotel in Leeds.

The awards were hosted by TV presenter Julia Bradbury and guest speaker was Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband, who described the issue as the "moral battle of our time".'

Doncaster North MP Mr Miliband, who had just flown in from talks in China, said the awards were a very worthy initiative and the high standard of nominations proved that "human beings have extraordinary potential to solve the most extraordinary problems".

He added: "There is huge ingenuity in this region and in this country and we can tackle some of the biggest ills including climate change. I think together this region can lead the way."

The diverse winners included Yorkshire Bank, which was named Best Environmental Business, a project to make Todmorden self-sufficient in greens by 2018 and Yorkshire Horticultural Supplies for their peat-free compost that does not harm the environment.

The Innovation Award went to Pickering-based Bioflame, which generates power from carbon-neutral waste biomass, while the Climate Change Award was won by an arts projects looking at floods which killed hundreds of people in the Gujarat region of India in 2006 and the deluge which swept through Toll Bar, near Doncaster, a year later.

Pupils from Westfield Sports College in Sheffield attended the ceremony to see their school honoured for its campaigning Eco-Council. Work has included planting bulbs, picking up litter and liaising with managers of an orchard to get trees planted on college grounds.

The Environmental Energy Technology Centre (EETC) in Rotherham, which can even open the windows automatically when rooms get too warm was another winner, as was the Dales Bike Centre. The venture, in Fremington, near Richmond, transformed a crumbling barn into the national park's only dedicated cycle visitor centre.

Castle Howard took the Countryside Award thanks to a hugely successful scheme to boost wild bird numbers on the estate.

The prestigious title of Green Champion went to Hull University's Professor Lynne Frostick who has been involved with environmental research for more than 35 years and wrote a key independent report into the floods in Hull in 2007.

Prof Frostick said she was shocked to be given the award, which she described as a privilege.

Mr Miliband also praised regional development agency Yorkshire Forward and awards sponsor the Sustainable Futures Company for working on a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. He said CCS was a "huge industrial opportunity for this area and a huge moral opportunity for the world".

A power plant has been proposed for Hatfield in South Yorkshire with a pipe underneath pumping the carbon emissions into the rock bed under the North Sea.

Eventually Yorkshire Forward wants to see that pipeline extended to every coal-fired power station in the region – including Europe's largest at Drax, near Selby in North Yorkshire – transforming the region from a major polluter to one of the greenest developed areas in the world.

The chairman of Yorkshire and Humber Sustainable Futures Company, Barry Dodd, told the audience on Thursday that the environmental sector was growing and exciting and there was excellent job satisfaction for those involved.

Yorkshire Post editor Peter Charlton said: "I'm very excited by this new event because the Yorkshire Post has a proud history of environmental campaigning.

"I hope it will become an annual fixture in the region's calendar, and I have been absolutely delighted by the response of companies and individuals who have submitted entries.

"As with our business and local food awards, those entries have been of such a uniformly high standard that judging has been both a joy and a headache. What has become apparent is how seriously business in our region takes environmental issues."


THE WINNERS:

Best Environmental Business

Sponsored by the Sustainable Futures Company



Winner: Yorkshire Bank

Manufacturer of the Best Green Product

Sponsored by STS



Winner: Yorkshire Horticultural Supplies

Innovation

Sponsored by Science City York



Winner: Bioflame

Community Award

Sponsored by Yorkshire Water



Winner: Incredible Edible Todmorden

School Award

Sponsored by Asda



Winner: Westfield Sports College, Sheffield

Climate Change

Sponsored by the Environment Agency



Winner: Rivers Project

Built Environment: Projects over £1M

Sponsored by Grant Thornton



Winner: Environmental Energy Technology Centre

Built Environment: Projects under £1M



Winner: Dales Bike Centre

Countryside Award

Sponsored by NorthernGas Networks



Winner: Castle Howard Estate

Green Champion

Sponsored by the Yorkshire Post



Winner: Professor Lynne Frostick