A former circus performer who has helped turn London’s docklands into a wildlife haven won the top award at the British Environment and Media Awards.

Dusty Gedge received the Andrew Lees Award for his success in persuading developers to install “green roofs” – hundreds of thousands of square metres of greenery – on rooftops at London’s Canary Wharf, the City and other developments.

The fist “green roofs” were launched in 2003 in Deptford, south east London.

The Laban Dance Centre and the Creekside Nature Conservation Centre were opened with rooftops designed specially to preserve the habitat of the black redstart, one of Britain’s most endangered birds.

It is a small grey and black bird with an orange tail which thrives on disused industrial land.

In his determination to preserve environmentally rich brownfield sites, London-based campaigner Mr Gedge has been one of the most influential figures in pushing the Canary Wharf management and its high profile City and banking tenants into building “green roofs” on their tower blocks.

Nesting boxes for a dozen swifts have been installed 655 feet up at the top of the Canada Square tower and two sand martin nesting boxes have been set up on docksides.

An experimental green roof is covering Chevron Texaco’s building and another is under way on the Northern Trust block.

Green roofs are not just good for birds, bumblebees and other insects. They also:

Help soak up rain water, which helps prevent flooding during heavy rain;

Improve local air quality;

Help conserve energy by acting as an extra layer of insulation, thus reducing heating and air conditioning bills.

The new trend has been unwittingly inspired by the pressure to build 60% of all new homes on brownfield sites, to save the Green Belt from housing and industrial development.

The BEMAs Awareness Award went to the government’s scientific adviser, Sir David King, for keeping climate change high up the political agenda.

The Guardian newspaper scooped several awards for its environmental coverage, being named the newspaper of the year.

John Vidal, its environment editor, took the award for journalist of the year and Paul Brown, the paper’s environment correspondent was a runner-up.

There were some new faces on the environmental scene too, with Time magazine recognised for its coverage of environmental issues such as GM foods.

The Big Issue was a runner up for coverage of environment and health issues.

The BBC had a strong showing as usual. BBC2’s Britain Goes Wild series was named best environmental campaign and Countryfile was best television documentary for its investigation into ageing European trawlers reflagging and fishing in Senegalese waters.

BBC Radio 4 and the website were also winners.

The 14th British Environment and Media Awards, the environmental movement’s equivalent of the BAFTAs, the Grammys, the Oscars and the Golden Globes, were held at Vinopolis, Bank End – alongside the Globe Theatre on London’s South Bank.