The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) was pleased to host a delegation from the UK Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) as part of the Committee’s ongoing inquiries into environmental sustainability, housing growth and airport expansion.
The visit brought together CISL’s expert teams and members from our leadership and innovation groups —including the Corporate Leaders Group, the Centre for Sustainable Finance, Canopy, and the Living Lab—alongside colleagues from Cambridge City Council and wider stakeholders in the finance, built environment, and startup communities to support the EAC in developing evidence-based recommendations for government policy on net zero and sustainable development.
Discussions focused on the transformation of the UK’s housing stock and the role of innovation and investment in accelerating retrofit solutions, including:
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Retrofitting existing homes must be at the heart of national housing strategy, not treated as a separate concern to new build.
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Innovation in green technologies will be driven by demand signals across both new and existing buildings—retrofit is essential to scaling that potential.
James Cole, Chief Innovation Officer, CISL said:
“Retrofit presents an opportunity to improve lives and create resilience whilst supporting the economy with good jobs and new businesses delivering retrofit-related services.
We were pleased to welcome MPs from the Environmental Audit Committee yesterday to share learnings from CISL’s Entopia Building retrofit and to convene corporate and investment leaders, innovators, academics and local authorities for a discussion on the barriers and opportunities for UK retrofit.”
The visit included a tour of CISL’s exemplar retrofitted Entopia Building – which now uses less than 15 % of the energy previously and meets the BREEAM Outstanding, Passivhaus Enerphit and Well Gold standards. The building hosts a living lab for innovation in the built environment, in partnership with the Crown Estate, to pilot new solutions, share data and insights and catalyse wider change in the bult environment.
The visit also included a session with the Aviation Impact Accelerator (AIA), a partnership between CISL and the Whittle Laboratory, exploring the UK’s capacity to lead in climate-neutral aviation. The AIA team highlighted both the challenges and opportunities posed by airport expansion, as well as near-term strategies to reduce aviation’s climate impact.
Key insights included:
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Airport expansion significantly increases the scale of the challenge to reach net zero, but also presents an opportunity for UK leadership in sustainable aerospace innovation.
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Contrail mitigation offers an operationally viable way to reduce near-term warming, and should be prioritised alongside long-term carbon reduction technologies.
Director of the AIA Professor Rob Miller said:
“It was wonderful to see how enthused MPs from the Environmental Audit Committee were about the technology development in the Whittle Lab. With one of the world’s most productive aerospace industries based in the UK, decisive action by policymakers now and over the next five years could make climate-neutral flight a reality.”
The AIA has also submitted both oral and written evidence to the Committee’s inquiry, further supporting its efforts to shape ambitious and science-led climate policy. Read more here.
The visit underscored the value of CISL’s work to working to transform key systems and sectors by convening policymakers, academics, businesses, innovators and local authorities to shape informed, market-shaping solutions to complex sustainability challenges. CISL’s work in this area takes a systemic approach by coordinating the ideas, technologies, policies and capabilities that catalyse and accelerate change.
