Innovation, sustainability and the future of cities
Using the electricity stored in an Electric Vehicle battery to smooth and manage demand on the electricity grid was a big topic at this year’s Low Carbon Vehicles exhibition and conference in September at the Millbrook proving ground. This Vehicle
Wonderful Lithium-Ion Batteries A few weeks ago, John Goodenough, Akira Yoshino and Stanley Whittingham won the 2019 Chemistry Nobel Prize for their work on Lithium-ion batteries (Li-ion). Lithium-ion batteries have made our portable, cable-free, mobile world. From our mobile phones
Every year I try to get to the Cenex Low Carbon Vehicles show at Millbrook proving ground. It’s a great way to take the pulse of the industry and to learn more about the future of transport. You find out
We have a problem with household waste in the UK. The stuff that gets collected at the kerbside. In 2017 we collected about 27 million tonnes of waste from our homes. We are getting better recycling, and just over 45%
Our homes consume about 30% of the UK’s energy and produce 20% of greenhouse gas emissions. 80% of that energy is used for space and hot water heating, mostly from gas. With a net-zero target for UK carbon emissions, it is
Earlier this year, I wrote about industry clusters. What they are, where they come from, and how important they are. So I was surprised to open my newspaper this morning and find an article by Larry Elliott arguing that the
As the world’s population becomes more urban, access to nature becomes more important to our wellbeing. From the pollinators that provide our food to the public parks that are the ‘green lungs’ of many towns and cities. Access to nature
37% of UK carbon emissions come from heating – domestic, public and commercial, and industrial. About 85% of the heating comes from gas. In its Net Zero report, the Committee on Climate Change argues that we must reduce carbon emissions
Everyone wants to be disruptive; to transform a market, sweeping away the big players and bringing exciting new ideas. It is the big win that everyone looks for. There are millions of articles about business disruption on Google with titles
You have created a great new product you are really excited about. You have sorted out the business model, figured out how to deliver it to the user, and fixed any manufacturing and cost problems. This will be great! And
Over the last 12 months, we have seen increasing interest in the climate crisis. We hear explicit warnings on climate risks from respected commentators like David Attenborough. Greta Thunberg is energising younger people to campaign for their future. Activists like
When a new technology appears it is usually accompanied by great excitement, at least from its inventors. What new opportunities does the technology open up? Where can we use it? The early enthusiasm quickly runs into practical barriers. The Gartner
You may have seen the TV advert for Experian in which Marcus Brigstocke meets his ‘data self’. A collection of live information that governs how financial institutions treat him as a customer. This is a variant of the ‘digital twin’
What do Mumbai, Copenhagen, the Spanish town of Castellón de la Plana, and the small US town of Dalton, Georgia, have in common? Each is at the centre of a concentrated industry cluster. Mumbai is famous for being the home
I love reading innovation stories. Where the idea came from, how they overcame problems, and what they make possible. Stories are how we excite people about innovation and why it matters. We need to tell more stories and better stories.
I have long thought the only way we can create cities that are economically successful, great places to live, sustainable and resilient, is to treat them as an integrated system of systems. The problem is that cities are so complicated
150 years ago, Dimitri Mendeleev developed the Periodic Table of the Elements. A way of organising all the information about the behaviour of the 63 elements known at the time. It has become an iconic image of science, and in
To innovate, we need to try things out; to experiment. But how do we select the right experiment? How do we choose? Whenever we conduct an experiment, we want the maximum information at the minimum cost. Experiments should be as
Last Friday I attended the annual Business Green Technology Awards. I always enjoy these events as they provide a great snapshot of innovation activity in the cleantech sector in the UK. This year I was a member of the judging
We know that business needs to innovate. Whether a startup, established SME or major industry player, new customer offers are critical for survival. We also know that most innovations fail in the market; despite our enthusiasm, creativity and persistence. We
In 1955 C. Northcote Parkinson wrote an article in The Economist that introduced the world to Parkinson’s Law – “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. An observation so universal in application that it is instantly recognisable
One of the fascinating things about innovation projects is the way that they evolve and change as the project progresses, and how they leave echoes long after the project has finished. In 2012 I was involved in setting up the
Since the IET published our report “Scaling Up Retrofit 2050” several people have asked me why the emphasis on ‘deep retrofit’? Taking today’s properties and upgrading them to 2050 energy efficiency standards in one step. Wouldn’t it be better to
The challenge of retrofitting 26 million homes In the UK we face a stiff challenge. The Climate Change Act of 2008 sets a legal target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. Every part of the UK economy
Every year I try to get to the Cenex Low Carbon Vehicles show at Millbrook. Now ten years old, this exhibition gives me a chance to see where we are up to on our journey to zero-carbon transportation. You
Correctly pricing a new product or service is vital. Too high and you get no customers, too low and you leave money on the table. Either way you burn through cash so your innovation, and possibly your company, fails. Pricing
A large part of the world’s population has experienced a dramatic heatwave in the summer of 2018. We have felt the impact of high temperatures and low rainfall, and we have seen dry rivers, empty reservoirs, and wildfires from all over
When you are only working on one innovation project at a time, you can give it all the care and attention it needs. There are no competing resource demands; at least for creating new products and services. Life gets more
For many years I have been fascinated by the idea of disruptive innovation and technologies. Whilst disruption certainly happens, there are plenty of historical examples of that, I don’t think you can identify which innovations will be disruptive and how
[This article was co-authored by Darren Ragheb of CPI and Richard Miller] At the end of 2017 the natural history programme, Blue Planet II, dramatically pushed the impact of waste plastics on the oceans into public eye. Since then, the topic
Last week I visited the Rushlight Summer Showcase in London. This brings together clean technology companies looking for investment and potential investors. The companies give a series of five-minute pitches to an investor panel, and there is also an exhibition
Business is all about knowledge and understanding; of the market, your customers, competitors, technologies and systems. Thomas Stewart used to say that “the history of business is the history of managing knowledge”. That has been true for thousands of years
A while ago I wrote about why innovations fail, and I wondered about start-ups. Do they have the same problems, or are they completely different? How often start-ups fail is a matter of debate. A commonly quoted figure is that
Getting the right people doing the right jobs is one of the major challenges in a small, growing business. We each have our particular strengths and our favoured working styles. Teams need to evolve as the business develops, and getting
Sometimes in conversation you suddenly run straight into a conceptual brick wall. You seem to be discussing the same topic, but somehow you are approaching it from such different positions that there seems to be ‘your topic’ and ‘their topic’
We all recognise that it is hard to make change happen. This is nothing new. In the early 16th C Machiavelli commented in The Prince “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain
There is a real challenge right at the heart of climate change policy in the UK. The Climate Change Act requires us to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, compared to a 1990 baseline. All parts of our economy
“Prediction is difficult, especially of the future.”; a quote so useful that it has been linked to everyone from Yogi Berra to Niels Bohr. Yes, prediction is difficult, but when we innovate it is essential. We should be thinking not only about the
To make progress towards a circular economy we need innovation. New products and services, new methods and new approaches. The challenge is, first of all, to find inspiration for innovative ideas, and secondly, to be able to compare different options
The topic of plastic waste and its environmental impact has rocketed up the political agenda in the last few weeks. Blue Planet II alerted the public to the impact of our waste plastics on the oceans and the life in
We live in a big and complex world faced with big and complex problems; climate change, population growth, environmental degradation and inequality. In these mega-challenges, as well as the apparently simpler task of running a city or creating a
The UK has a problem; rather a large one. The Climate Change Act 2008 commits the UK to reduce carbon emissions by 80% from a 1990 baseline by 2050. In 2016 the biggest single consumer of energy was transport at
Over the last few years, there has been a significant growth in interest in 3D printing. It has moved from clever demonstrations of technical capability, producing objects impossible by conventional methods, to commercial usefulness. Initially used for the creation of
I was recently at an event on innovation when the speaker put up the following quote from the design guru John Maeda: “…economies are built upon convergent thinkers, people that execute things, get them done. But artists and designers are
We never learn Do you ever get a sinking feeling as you start a new project or activity? A conviction that somewhere, at some time, a very similar project started, and yet we can’t seem to lay our hands on
Thomas Stewart said, “the history of business is the history of ways of managing knowledge.” Competitive advantage has always been about being better at using knowledge than the other person. And when you look back into the past, that has
The cost of renewable energy continues to fall, and more and more of our electricity comes from renewables and low-carbon sources. On one day in June the renewable electricity supply peaked at over half the UK’s demand, and National Grid
There is a tendency among many people to see sustainability as a moral crusade; the right way to run your business and lead your life. Others put it together with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as about being a good neighbor,
Decarbonising heat A key challenge facing the UK is decarbonising the energy system. The UK is legally committed to reduce its carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 and eventually to net-zero under the Paris Agreement. Most of the focus in
A few years ago, I was working with the product development group of a technology company. I asked one of the managers how information flowed between the various groups involved in bringing a new product to market. “It’s simple”, he