DroneDeploy Celebrates Global Reality Capture Innovators at the 2025 DroneDeploy Awards

Reality capture leaders recognized for innovation, safety, sustainability and community impact at Horizons 2025

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, UNITED STATES, November 11, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- DroneDeploy, the industrial robotics and AI platform used on over 3 million sites worldwide, announced the winners of its fourth annual DroneDeploy Awards during the Horizons 2025 conference in Newport Beach, California.

The DroneDeploy Awards celebrate the organizations and individuals redefining how reality capture technology – powered by drones, robots, AI agents and 360-degree cameras – transforms industries around the world.

This year marked the most submissions in DroneDeploy Awards history, with entrants spanning 15+ countries and industries including construction, energy, agriculture and environmental conservation.

2025 Award Winners

Operational Excellence – Skanska

Skanska, a global construction and development firm, took home the Operational Excellence award for scaling a single-drone pilot program in 2015 to a fleet of more than 100 active DroneDeploy pilots across the US.

At Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, for example, Skanska’s team used DroneDeploy to coordinate a multi-phase, campus-wide build spanning more than 400,000 square feet of research facilities. By leveraging 3D overlays and volume analysis, they reduced rework across six major lab and housing structures and managed complex logistics over a century-old seawall restoration.

Steward of Sustainability – The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy, a global nonprofit operating in 83 countries, has been named Steward of Sustainability for its use of DroneDeploy to monitor biodiversity and restoration outcomes across more than 800 acres of coastal kelp forests.

By leveraging high-resolution drone imagery, scientists can track fine-scale changes in kelp dynamics, strengthening ecosystem resilience and guiding targeted restoration. This scalable, data-driven approach provides a replicable model for marine conservation worldwide.

Building upon this commitment to innovation, the organization applies advanced monitoring technologies to accelerate conservation efforts globally. These initiatives have helped protect thousands of acres of critical habitats from wetlands to forests in nine different countries.

Community & Workforce Development – FlyGuys

FlyGuys, a Louisiana-based reality data capture company, received the Community & Workforce Development award for advancing inclusion within the drone industry.

Through school presentations, community organizations, and partnerships with independent small business operators, FlyGuys has offered pilot development webinars, training resources, and nationwide career opportunities to over 17,000 drone pilots in geospatial data collection and inspection services.

Innovation of the Year – Joeris General Contractors

Joeris General Contractors, a Texas-based builder specializing in commercial and education projects, captured the Innovation of the Year award for its bold experimentation with 3D modeling and immersive visualization to improve field collaboration and safety. Its pioneering use of a crawler robot to perform 360-degree walkthroughs in crawlspace areas, enabling safe, detailed internal inspections and dramatically improving documentation efficiency, was a particular standout.

The company’s adoption of cutting-edge DroneDeploy features – including progress tracking and autonomous workflows – have cut documentation time by 75%.

DroneDeploy Champion – Meg Wilson, WM

As Senior Manager of Business Solutions at WM, the North American leader in environmental and waste management services, Meg Wilson spearheaded a company-wide rollout of DroneDeploy across 251 landfill sites, empowering over 800 internal users and 300 partners. Her leadership drove a $1.75 million annual savings in-house reporting efficiency and helped establish one of the world’s largest internal drone programs.

By enabling teams to analyze landfill airspace weekly instead of annually, Wilson and her team have transformed how WM manages environmental safety, asset longevity and sustainability.

Reality Capture Program of the Year

New in 2025, this category honors organizations that have standardized reality capture best practices across regions – driving efficiency, collaboration and enterprise-wide impact.

Americas: PCL Construction

PCL Construction, a leading builder in North America, operates throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. They have integrated DroneDeploy into every major region in Canada and the US, completing more than 10,000 aerial flights in 2025 alone. Since switching to DroneDeploy, PCL has taken more than nine million aerial images and 36 million 360-degree images on around 2,000 projects. Their unified capture standards now inform project delivery for clients across energy, industrial and commercial sectors.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa: John Paul Construction

John Paul Construction, a prominent international technical contractor delivering commercial and infrastructure projects across the UK and Europe, has standardized DroneDeploy across its projects. Their enterprise-wide implementation has created a unified digital delivery platform, integrating aerial and ground-based reality capture workflows. This commitment to standardization has not only enhanced their site documentation and program governance with a single source of truth, but has also delivered significant efficiency, reducing survey turnaround from days to hours through streamlined as-built verification and progress reporting.

Asia Pacific: Programmed

Programmed, a property services and maintenance provider operating across Australia and New Zealand, has scaled DroneDeploy across 500+ customer sites. Programmed uses aerial and ground-based 3D modeling to improve job safety, site verification and quality control across national sites, allowing greater communication and visibility for their customers and delivery teams.

Rising Star – Brian Owens, The Weitz Company

The inaugural Rising Star award went to Brian Owens, VDC & Field Solutions Engineer at The Weitz Company, a national US general contractor headquartered in Des Moines.

Owens has integrated DroneDeploy Ground and 360° capture into every stage of project planning and QA/QC, increasing field-to-office coordination by 40% on multiple critical projects within the last year.

A standout early adopter of DroneDeploy, Owens has driven measurable impact by integrating reality capture into daily workflows – bridging the gap between design and field operations. His leadership exemplifies how emerging professionals are shaping the next wave of digital construction.

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About DroneDeploy

DroneDeploy powers field teams with robotics and AI. As the only platform that combines robotic automation, AI agents and truly unified reality capture, DroneDeploy allows critical industries to operate with speed and confidence.

From construction and energy to agriculture, the world’s largest companies use DroneDeploy to simplify field operations, improve safety and make smarter decisions, faster. By combining aerial drones, 360 and fixed cameras, ground robots and proprietary AI, we’re bringing the power of automation and visual intelligence to all stakeholders, from the field to the boardroom.

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