Solutions and Innovation
A step change in the sector’s environmental and social impact is required to achieve the UKGBC vision for a sustainable built environment. This requires innovation in technology, business models and ways of operating, but innovation in the sector can be slow. Our work on Solutions & Innovation aims to help address shared sustainability challenges within the property and construction sector by showcasing practical solutions and enhancing collaboration between innovators and corporates. Our work was founded on the success and learnings of a pilot solution crowdsourcing project run in 2020.
- UKGBC Solutions Library: highlighting practical and commercially viable solutions that help address common sustainability challenges, and case studies demonstrating their implementation. We welcome UKGBC members and non-members to submit solutions, and UGKBC members to submit case studies, for potential inclusion. We regularly feature content from the Library in our social media communications, courses & events and in discussions with our members.
- Innovation Challenges: Through running time-bound innovation challenges in collaboration with our members, UKGBC uses its unique convening power to identify and profile relevant solutions. UKGBC members can propose challenges that they would like help with here.
- Inside Innovation: UKGBC has an expanding community of ‘Innovative Start-Up’ members, who we welcome at a discounted rate of just £105 per year. UKGBC Innovative Start-Up members are profiled in Inside Innovation, including interviews exploring their innovation journey. We host quarterly Innovative Start-Up Forum meetings to connect our start-ups with each other and the wider UKGBC membership. You can also find our Hub/Accelerator members, as well as UKGBC’s own innovation tools and resources, listed here.
GET INVOLVED
- Browse the Solutions Library, and submit a solution or case study for inclusion.
- Submit a challenge topic for consideration.
- Submit a solution to one of our live challenges, and browse our past challenges.
- Apply to become an Innovative Start-Up Member, or enquire about working with one of them. For more information, please contact innovation@ukgbc.org.
- If you are already an Innovative Start-Up member, join our Innovative Start-Up Forum.
INNOVATION CHALLENGES
Upcoming challenges:
- Our 2022 challenges will support the implementation of UKGBC’s Whole Life Carbon Roadmap. If you would like to suggest a challenge, you can do so here.
Previous challenges:
- Retrofitting climate resilience.
- Enabling local implementation of nature-based solutions.
- Linking building occupancy to energy use.
- Making existing buildings net zero operational carbon.
INNOVATIVE START-UP FORUM
Our next meeting will be held in July 2022 (TBA). You can catch up on previous Forum meetings by reading our reflection blog series:
- “Meet the Architects” – April 2022 (coming soon).
- “Meet the Developers” – January 2022.
RESOURCES
- Open Innovation Levels Framework
- Delivering Social Value: Community Engagement Hacked
- Innovation Insights: Nature-Based Solutions & Climate Resilience
- Innovation Insights: Circular Economy
- Innovation Insights: Making Space as Agile as Technology
- Innovation Insights: Reducing Operational Carbon
- Sustainable Innovation Manual
- Sustainable Innovation Templates
- Concepts from UKGBC’s Future Leaders programme
If you are a UKGBC member, please join our Solutions & Innovation Mailing List to receive regular updates, or contact innovation@ukgbc.org. Contact lucy.rees@ukgbc.org if you would like to collaborate on innovation activities.