We’re delighted to announce that City Science, Runnymede and the Heathrow Strategic Planning Group (HSPG) have won a place in Phase 1 of Innovate UK’s Net Zero Living – Pathfinder Places competition with the project ‘Runnymede’s Runway to Net Zero’.
The Net Zero Living competition is supporting 31 local authority places to develop programmes to accelerate their transition to Net Zero. This will be achieved by developing innovative solutions to overcome systematic, non-technical barriers to Net Zero delivery.
For the ‘Runnymede’s Runway to Net Zero’ project, a “whole system” view of Runnymede will be taken, while considering the wider regional context of the Heathrow area. City Science will be working with project partners to conceptualise the borough as part of a wider HSPG energy and mobility system to tackle how to identify new opportunities to enhance coordination, deliver behaviour change and unlock funding for new interventions.
The project will involve improving coordination, scenario-planning, prioritisation and investment within the HSPG area, developing mechanisms to improve influence and coordination with external regions where carbon emissions originate, and working with Heathrow and large international businesses to enable decarbonisation funding (insets/offsets) to be recycled locally to maximise change.
Project partners include Runnymede Borough Council and local authority partners of the wider Heathrow Strategic Planning Group.
Laurence Oakes-Ash, City Science CEO, comments:
“We’re delighted to have secured funding for this project in the Net Zero Living – Pathfinder Places competition. We’ll be working with local authorities and other project partners to help the UK meet its Net Zero ambitions using exciting and innovative approaches that we believe will have a significant impact.”
After the initial studies are completed later in the year, a selection of projects will be chosen by Innovate UK for up to £8m further investment to accelerate the net zero ambitions.
To learn more, email info@cityscience.com