How do you create climate smart cities and build new houses that help to solve our sustainability challenge? This important question will be discussed at a series of Bristol-centric focus groups which our Planning Director Mike Fox is delighted to be attending.
Bristol is one of four cities selected to host a global open innovation competition called the Climate Smart Cities Challenge (CSSC). The challenge is a UN-Habitat initiative which aims to develop, test and scale cutting edge solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Bristol One City and Bristol Housing Festival, who submitted the successful bid to become a host city, are working to define the specific challenge brief so that it’s ready for the official launch at the World Expo in Dubai in November. Here, innovators from around the world will be invited to find solutions to the challenge submitted for the city.
The city’s challenge looks specifically at the costs involved in making homes carbon neutral. While the technology is already available for every home in the UK to be carbon neutral, a key barrier to making this happen is cost. The organisations involved are hoping to find a social innovation model to rethink cost in a way that incorporates social and environmental value and find a way to make carbon neutral new builds viable for all stakeholders.
Twelve city stakeholders have already contributed their ideas to help define the challenge brief. The focus groups are the latest part of the brief development process and will include:
- Developers and Housing Associations
- Financiers, bankers and lawyers
- Environmental, ecological and sustainability specialists.
Mike’s involvement in the focus groups reflects Nash Partnership’s focus on sustainable development. Mike recently led our practice in adopting the Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for measuring the impact of our work, from the projects we carry out to how we operate as an organisation. As part of this, Mike developed a thorough and robust strategy to ensure a focused approach, buy-in from all parts of the business and continual progress.