A building that sets a new benchmark for sustainable design, the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, has taken out top honours at this year's BPN Sustainability Awards.

Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart Architects won the Best of the Best Award for the new children's hospital in Parkville, Melbourne.

The 2012 Sustainability Awards winners were announced at a gala dinner in Sydney last week at Doltone House on Darling Island Wharf-Pyrmont.

Now in its sixth year, the Sustainability Awards recognises the pinnacle of sustainable building practice in Australia.

This year the awards fielded a record number of entrants with the building projects, products and innovations coming from across Australia.

Designers Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart Architects were recognised for achieving unprecedented levels of sustainability throughout all aspects of this major (AUD1 billion plus) healthcare project. 

The judges praised the holistic and thoughtful approach the architects took in addressing the high degree of difficulty and complexity in the New Royal Children's Hospital design.

“The implications of the design success at the New Royal Children's Hospital are major, because, if this level of sustainability can be achieved in such a large and complex healthcare design project, then the rest that follow will have no excuse for failure,” the judges commented.

See the full list of winners here.