Entrepreneurs can lead the
sustainability journey by
directly influencing customers
Wh e r e a r e t h e r e a l
gains to be made?
“UNIP’s Jubilee Campus wears its
sustainability on its sleeve,” added
Hutton, “which makes it inspiring and
locally aspirational.”
A comfortable, well-controlled
working environment is directly
linked to productivity. An accessible,
sustainable space will attract like-
minded people, and the building will
look after its tenants using automated
environmental controls, for example.
Sustainability builds its own ecosystem.
“A green tech building is a great way
of attracting green tech companies,”
said David Summerland, CEO of Search
For The Next, a fabless semiconductor
company based out of UNIP’s Ingenuity
Centre. “The Ingenuity Building itself
allows companies like us to exist and we,
in turn, develop large numbers of tiny
components that allow many individuals
to save tiny amounts of energy.”
Wh o w i l l l e a d t h e
s u s ta i n a b i l it y j o u r n e y ?
“Entrepreneurs can lead the
sustainability journey by directly
influencing customers,” said Hara Two,
a recent graduate of The University of
G e n Z a r e m o r e c o n ce r n e d wit h
c o r r ecti n g t h e s o cia l , ec o n o mic
a n d p o l itica l issues t h e y f i n d
t h emse lv es f aci n g , a n d wi l l f ace
Nottingham and now Director of Live
The Go, another Ingenuity Building start-
up that is developing a user-friendly
commuter app to help personalise use
of city transport.
Younger generations, as exemplified
by Two, are no longer purely profit
focused. They bring a different attitude
to business, seeking to make things
that survive and thrive rather than
focusing on the accumulation of
wealth. This change in attitude can
also be seen among large corporates
who recognise the need to answer to
the demands of current and future
graduating generations.
“Gen Z needs renewable energy tech
to be ethical,” said Steven Chapman of
the Ingenuity Lab (Haydn Green
Institute). “They are more concerned
with correcting the social, economic
R e a d o n l i n e at: u k s pa . o r g . u k / b r e a k t h r o u g h
and political issues they find
themselves facing, and will face.”
When asked if this generational
drive for ethics is likely to be sustained
as Gen Z grow into middle age, the room
agreed that there appears to be enough
evidence to suggest that attitudes run
deeply enough to resist the pressures
of family life.
I N S U M M ARY
Baird, as Chair of the day’s proceedings,
summarised discussions: “Successful
sustainable space is about usable
technologies and informing tenants
about how to use those technologies. It’s
about how we tell the sustainability story
and disseminate key messages out to the
wider community. Ultimately, sustainable
space is not about place, it’s about how
people use those places.”
S u m m e r 2 0 17 | U K S PA b r e ak t h r o u g h | 6 3