UKGBC has exceeded 100 innovative start-up members, a significant milestone highlighting their efforts to showcase and help scale the solutions needed to radically transform the sustainability of the built environment. This collection of exciting companies with solutions ranging from construction systems and building materials to design tools, optimisation software and upskilling platforms.
They have been running a variety of activities to support this growing community for the past few years to provide them with access to valuable market insight and profiling opportunities. This includes their quarterly Innovative Start-Up Forum which enables innovators to network with other industry professionals and discuss challenges and learnings. Their investor matchmaking events connect start-ups with potential investors and their Solutions & Innovation Advisory Scheme helps start-ups receive guidance and support with navigating the complexities of the industry and refining their value proposition. They also work to raise awareness of solutions from both start-ups and larger organisations through UKGBC’s Innovation Showcase webinar series and Solutions Library.
While start-ups often bring solutions to market, innovation can also occur within project teams, corporates, communities and academic institutions. This can either drive the creation of radical new solutions or incrementally improve upon existing ones to increase their efficiency, affordability and scalability. Innovators can also help identify how to combine existing solutions to maximise impact or how to create new structures, policies, processes or business models to enable more widespread deployment.
This type of innovation becomes even more pertinent when we consider that many solutions fall victim to the so-called “valley of death”, meeting challenges in scaling up from initial research & development through to full scale deployment. The built environment presents many of its own distinctive challenges: companies are often risk averse, project lifecycles are long, procurement processes are complex, and many stakeholders must be on board.
To address this and further, UKGBC’s support for innovators (both within start-ups and more broadly), they are developing a new initiative called “Scaling Sustainable Solutions for the Built Environment” to enable more ‘on the ground’ action. UKGBC is uniquely positioned to deliver this area of work due to our 700+ member organisations, which span the entire built environment value chain (including the 100+ start-ups), and their understanding of sustainability challenges facing industry. Crucially, they were referenced in a Government report last year calling for UKGBC to encourage “greater testing and piloting of innovative solutions in the built environment.” This initiative is a direct response to that call to action and has been developed through interviews and workshops with UKGBC members.
As part of this initiative, UKGBC wants to leverage their network and their expertise to identify barriers to scaling and recommend ways these barriers can be overcome. They also aim to significantly increase the implementation of solutions on projects and within organisations through the development of a matchmaking service, and they are looking for ambitious and forward-thinking organisations to work with them. If this is of interest, please do get in touch and / or join them at their upcoming Winter Social on November 21st, where you’ll be able to speed network with their innovative start-up members.
UKGBC recognises the crucial role innovation plays in creating a more sustainable built environment and is uniquely positioned to help drive the adoption of impactful solutions. By fostering collaboration, offering support, and removing barriers, UKGBC is committed to enabling real change in this decade of action. They are very proud to work with over 100 start-ups that are leading the transformation of the built environment, and they invite all innovators and organisations passionate about sustainability to join them on this journey.
