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March 9, 2010 - No more niches – we need sustainable innovation at scale

It’s the scale of it all that is sometimes daunting. On energy, for instance, we have to transition from around 90% dependency on fossil fuels to around 90% on renewables – allowing a little bit of residual space for cleaner and super-efficient fossil fuels (aviation, amongst other things, where technological substitution is always going to be limited). If we had two hundred years to make all that happen, it would be fine. But we don’t. Between 2025 and 2050 is seen by most scientists as the outer time limit available to us.

Which will require an unprecedented level of innovation in every sector of the economy. And that means getting scale in all those sectors to get the right drivers in place to make the innovation happen. From niche to mainstream. Easy! But scale means different things in different sectors.

I spent a day last week at Ecobuild - ‘the biggest event in the world for sustainable design, construction and the built environment’. That absolutely wasn’t a claim that could have been made at the first Ecobuild, five years ago, which attracted no more than 1000 visitors. This year, there were more than 50,000 people there. Earls Court was flush with exhibitors, from some of the biggest companies in the UK to distinctly ‘alternative’ start-ups taking a massive gamble on enough people falling for their particular ‘breakthrough innovation’. There were countless meetings and debates going on the whole time, and the kind of buzz that one doesn’t always associate with events of this kind.

For the politicians who’d dropped in, and wandered around looking a bit bemused, it all said one thing: no more niches. This was about scale. New orders. Expanding markets. Innovation (in the construction industry!). And even, dare one say it, new jobs.

I won’t be churlish by pointing out that this supply-chain journey (from niche to huge, scaled opportunity) could have been stimulated by the political system many years ago – as it was in Germany, Scandinavia and so on. At least we’ve got there now, and it’s exciting.

The UK Green Building Council has been a central part of that journey, and is now providing the kind of leadership (across this complex industry and beyond) that the politicians need in order to stay in touch with the developments on the ground. The UK Green Building Council launched its new Green Building Manifesto at Ecobuild – and it’s well worth a look.

Posted by Jonathon Porritt on March 9, 2010 2:44 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

June 2, 2010 - Grand Designs on Sustainable Housing

Encountered my first Minister in the new Coalition government – in the shape of Grant Shapps, Minister for Housing – on Thursday last week at the ‘Opening Ceremony’ for a new housing development getting underway in Swindon.

Not just any old housing development. The Triangle is a 42-home, mixed tenure, affordable scheme, the design for which has been put together by Kevin McCloud (of Grand Designs fame) and a housing association called Green Square. All the houses will meet Code Level 4 in the code for Sustainable Homes, and some of them Code Level 5. It’s backed by the Housing and Communities Agency (to the tune of £2.5 Million) and by DECC’s Low Carbon Innovation Fund. And the main contractor is Willmott Dixon, who were there in force at the opening.

It was Grant Shapps’s first outing as minister – so new that he inadvertently described himself as ‘Shadow Minister’ on one occasion. He did well – not just in his enthusiasm for the project itself, but in simultaneously confirming the 2016 target for zero carbon housing in England. This had somehow been left out of the Coalition’s new Programme for Government, which had caused a bit of a stir. He also pledged to bring to an end a three-year stand-off on how exactly ‘zero-carbon’ will be defined (‘that’s not as easy it sounds, by the way!’) within weeks. And that would be impressive.

Somewhat to the consternation of his equally new officials, he also had to familiarise himself with the brand new building material called ‘Hemcrete’, this is made out of hemp, produced by a company called Lime Technology, and it’s being used as the principal building material for the 42 houses.

I think he got a real buzz discovering more about Hemcrete – as did I. Kevin McCloud is already very enthusiastic:

“Hemp is the second fastest growing crop on the planet, after bamboo, so it can be slotted in between other crops during a growing season. It also requires almost no inputs, and enriches the soil. It’s non-combustible, breathable, tough and flexible, and has remained our first choice ever since we saw it being used.”

It also makes a hell of a difference in terms of greenhouse gas emissions when compared with traditional brick or concrete blocks in a normal wall section – to the tune of around 130kg less in terms of CO2 per m2 . Which makes it a genuinely ‘carbon positive’ material – as in more carbon locked up than emitted.

What really excited me about all this is the way in which innovation is, at long last, beginning to impact on a hugely conservative, risk-averse industry. There were even some leading Private Equity Investors present at the opening ceremony – and that has to be a good sign!

Posted by Jonathon Porritt on June 2, 2010 6:40 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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