Today, the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) are partnering with The Crown Estate to encourage innovation and collaboration in the built environment
The CISL partnership with The Crown Estate has already founded the CISL’s Living Lab, and will now help fast-track the adoption of sustainable solutions and innovations within the built environment.
The Living Lab is based within the Entopia Building in Cambridge, which is itself a large retrofit project that was included on the shortlist for the Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards this year.
CISL partnership with the Crown Estate will boost adoption of sustainable measures
Through the new partnership, The Crown Estate will provide data and learnings from a proposed new start-up, lab, amenity, and events space in Cambridge Business Park.
This will benchmark new innovations across buildings, and allow more sites and building types to be added. The resulting network can boost data and insights, streamlining work and development of sustainability solutions for the built environment.
Matthew Sampson, regeneration director at The Crown Estate, said: “Driving sustainable innovation is an important facet of The Crown Estate’s strategy, helping us create economic, social and environmental value for the UK.
“Partnering with CISL to help deliver this sustainable innovation fits well with our work in the sector, and we’re excited to see the partnership grow and flourish. We’d encourage innovators to find out more about the Living Lab and make the most of this exciting initiative.”
Bringing sustainability to the built environment
The Living Lab has achieved Passivhaus, BREEAM, and Well sustainability standards in its retrofit, with measures taken such as sourcing bio-based materials, embodied carbon metrics over a century, and implementing circularity in design.
As a result, the Entopia Building provides an office, collaboration space, innovation hub for CISL staff, and a networking area for member of the Canopy – the community of entrepreneurs, startups, and innovators working with CISL.
The Living Lab also houses:
- Experiments and validation pilots towards a sustainable built environment
- Collaboration, learning and capacity building across disciplines and value chains
- Supporting the evidence base for ambitious retrofit practices, policies and technologies
- Informing new standards and protocols for open data sharing and collaboration
- External communication and engagement with policymakers, industry and professional bodies.
- Access for industry to collaborate and learn from CISL, academics, peers and innovators
- Community use of Entopia data to test and validate solutions in the real world
- Access for academics to contribute to the evidence base, access data and validate solutions.
James Cole, chief innovation officer at CISL, said: “We’re excited to partner with The Crown Estate as the inaugural partner of our Living Lab, which supports the UK’s clean growth ambitions by raising standards across the built environment.
“This collaboration will help industry leaders, innovators, and academics pilot and scale sustainable solutions that can deliver real commercial, social, and environmental value. We want to show that sustainability in the built environment is not just the right thing to do but also makes strong business sense.
“The built environment drives 40% of global emissions and is increasingly vulnerable to climate impacts, affecting building risks and compliance. Yet, sustainable buildings present a $1.8 trillion global market opportunity by 2030, with the UK green building sector expected to more than double by 2033.”
This collaboration will further develop the Nature Positive Start-up Accelerator, boosting new approaches and innovations within place-making, nature recovery, and sustainable development within the Crown Estate’s portfolio.
