Galvanising Invigorating and strengthening the South London ecosystem with a new roadmap for innovation and delivery of Retrofit activity in the region
Delivering Retrofit activity in the South London ecosystem by invigorating and strengthening innovation with a new roadmap.
Background
The push to achieve net-zero targets, mitigate the destructive impacts of climate change, and support environmental conservation efforts, has become a C-suite issue across industries, public forums and national policies. It’s well known that to be serious about fighting these challenges and delivering meaningful change, multiple stakeholder groups, partners and individuals must come together productively to plot and drive a successful, achievable course.
One area of pressing focus - particularly at a local and regional level - has been the acceleration of real estate and property energy efficiency measures. Referred to as ‘Retrofit’, this encompasses all improvements to buildings that reduce emissions, from insulation to air-source heat pumps.
South London Partnership (a sub-regional body that represents the South London councils of Merton, Sutton, Richmond, Wandsworth, Croydon and Kingston), with whom we’ve had a long-standing partnership, with the support of funders including the Department for Energy Security and Net-Zero and the Greater South East Net-Zero Hub, asked us to help bring together a retrofit community to steer and develop an emerging ‘Roadmap’ of priorities, activities and ambitions for Retrofit in the area.
Not only does this cover the delivery and implementation of Retrofit in the boroughs, but also the skills pathways needed to enable a local supply chain and workforce to deliver it, innovative financing models to enable it, and the exploration of the socio-economic opportunity of creating a South London ‘retrofit cluster’, to act as an exemplar of research, innovation and delivery for Retrofit at a regional and national level. A lot of this hinges on successfully engaging and educating the market - in this case, residents, homeowners and landlords - to ensure a scaled rollout of improvements, at speed.
Most importantly, activities must be prioritised with residents, citizens and communities in mind, for this to be truly inclusive and equitable.
However, there is currently a knowledge gap amongst local stakeholders around which lever to pull first to kickstart and accelerate the decarbonisation needed by 2030 and further ambiguity around how to deliver this productively in the South London region.
Alignment on collective action is needed.
Brief
This project set out to achieve just that - what focuses, priorities and needs are there within this space that would benefit from collaboration and cohesion at this level? How could this be kept challenge-focused? What consensus might be found in a wider group of practitioners, collectively able to make these changes happen, sustainably?
On May 29th 2024, South London Partnership convened a ‘South London Retrofit Roundtable’ event, hosted by the University of Roehampton and facilitated by Studio Zao. This roundtable - comprising over 50 different representatives - brought together South London partner organisations and institutions, leading retrofit industry practitioners, experts in sustainable engineering and technology drawn from across academia and business, and policymakers and stakeholders who are engaged in retrofit strategy and investment decision-making at the pan-London and national level.
The group collectively reimagined and designed the future of retrofit in South London, aligning on the opportunities, priorities and challenges represented by retrofit. Beyond this, the group explored the wider potential for the creation of a recognised retrofit and built environment cluster within South London to drive the transition to net zero.
We deployed a number of innovation tools to achieve this, including future thinking, customer-centric design and rapid feedback seminars, working in cross-functional breakout groups and theming across key priorities. Our team facilitated each table’s discussions, ensuring a productive output that was captured for analysis and development.
IMPACT
We collated the outputs from the discussion to design and create a ‘Retrofit Roadmap’ for South London, outlining the central themes and challenges that were discussed and offering recommendations as to priorities (‘How Do We’ questions) and next steps for the stakeholders involved. This was focused on Urgency (how important this is, now) Relevance (what is appropriate to tackle at the sub-regional level specifically), and Practicality (how feasible is it to move fast and with outcomes).
The key themes and questions to answer in the short term were (not exhaustive):
Educating and Engaging the Market: How do we improve the understanding of retrofit to stimulate demand?
Skills and the Workforce: How do we motivate young people to engage with retrofit career opportunities?
Research and Innovation: How do we promote collaboration across the retrofit ecosystem?
Outcomes
This was presented to the Partnership to be used as a strategic ‘north star’ for activities in this area that would benefit from being pursued at a Sub-regional level. This roadmap will provide a guide for ongoing discussions around pursuing these goals and for where best to target resources in the coming months, efficiently and productively. Further sessions will be convened to action priorities and build a case for further investment and collaboration.
The report is publicly available here. To find out more about the work we’re doing in the Retrofit space, with South London partners, and how we accelerate action and innovation across complex topics, get in touch with Chris Baker.
The insight gathering, casting, research, planning, delivery and amalgamation into the final published report was well executed. The team brought expertise and an elevation of the conversation around retrofit which enabled South London Partnership to play a convening role and allowed organisations from a range of sectors to collaborate openly in shaping the discussions and outcomes. Studio Zao are quick, responsive and work efficiently which was essential for this piece of work. The team were tenacious and helped us keep on track to deliver at pace.
Polly Persechino, Head of Economy, Skills & Employment, South London Partnership
