I am delighted to announce my appointment as an Ambassador to Connected Places Catapult—the UK’s leading accelerator for cities, transport, and place leadership. Strengthening Innovation in Cities & Infrastructure
As part of the Catapult’s newly formed Affiliates Network, I will contribute to advancing innovation ecosystems across business, government, and academia. The network is designed to enhance the reach and impact of Connected Places Catapult in shaping sustainable, smart, and future-ready places. Ambassador Role & Strategic Impact
🔹 Providing strategic advisory input to drive innovation🔹 Facilitating key industry connections across sectors🔹 Identifying strategic opportunities to maximise the Catapult’s initiatives
Stay tuned for insights on smart cities, sustainable infrastructure, and place-based innovation!
Interested in collaborating? Get in touch to explore opportunities in ESG, sustainability, and urban innovation....
Last week I had the opportunity to take part in a panel discussion at Connected Places Catapult. The topic of discussion was ‘Impact-led innovation: investor’s friend or foe?’ The discussion was facilitated by Yusuf Chadun, the Catapult’s SME Investor Relations Manager. The other panelists were Arnold du Toit, Co-Founder and CEO WeSprint, and Rajiv Tanna, CO-Founder and CPO of Birdie.
The discussion
Given I work in ESG, it won’t have been surprising for me to say that impact led innovations, and being able to clearly evidence that impact, is an investor’s friend. As I flagged, I work with companies to develop their approach to ESG. I outlined that the focus of ESG is on risk management and sustainability in the broadest sense. We then moved on to discuss what we mean by impact-led innovation. For me, impact-led innovations are both longer terms, and focus on what’s termed the triple bottom line with its emphasis on profit, people and planet, as opposed to a...
I’m pleased to announce that I and Keyah Consulting Ltd are signatories of the Urban Land Institute’s Commitment to Health and Equity in the Built Environment. The Commitment is an actionable commitment. It is to affirm health and equity as core values of our work. It’s a call to action to those of us shaping of our cities and communities and decision-making processes tied to the built environment. It’s founded on the recognition that our decisions and actions have a significant impact on our lives and our communities. It also recognises our responsibility in supporting conditions that improve the health, environmental quality, economic vitality, and social equity of communities. I see my contribution, and that of Keyah Consulting’s, as promoting the importance of health and equity considerations across the built environment through talks, articles and promoting good work that is taking place. There’s also important work to be done through the ESG lens – in working with companies to embed these considerations across...
I had the opportunity to present on Housing and Health Inequalities to the Bureau Local UK Network of the Bureau of Investigate Journalism. My central argument was that health has to be put at the centre of our discussions about the built environment. We know that there are issues with housing in the UK. But it goes far beyond merely building more homes. Eighty percent of the homes we'll be living in in 2050 have already been built. It's critical to public health, to reducing our carbon emissions, that we address the challenges associated with substandard and energy inefficient homes. And it pays dividends. The argument that this is all too expensive is nonsensical given the very real costs associated with doing nothing. Here's a copy of the slides I presented.... Addressing housing and health inequalitiesDownload...
In the final of The Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) series on Healthy Living and Housing, our focus was on the future of intelligent homes. You can access the session by clicking here and registering to watch on demand. For this session, I was pleased to be joined by: Dr Chris McGinley, Senior Research Fellow, Leader Age & Diversity Research Space, Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art; and,
Dr Ozak Esu, Smart Assets Lead and part of the Construction Innovation Hub, Building Research Establishment (BRE)
Homes, health, and inclusive design
Chris outlined the role of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. It is a centre for inclusive design covering two main research themes, Age and Diversity, and Healthcare. They work across a number of design areas including strategic, visual, artefact, and the built environment and public spaces. His presentation included two short videos. The first was of an older woman trying to navigate the use of multiple remote controls to...
I had the pleasure of chairing the fifth in The Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) series on Healthy Living and Housing. The focus for this session was on smart home tech to support people’s needs. You can access the session by clicking the link here and registering to watch on demand. Speakers for this session included: Alisa Frik, Research Scientist, International Computer Science Institute; Postdoctoral Fellow for Berkeley Laboratory for Usable and Experimental SecurityNuno Almeida, Founder, Nourish CarePhilip Shelton, Principal Advisor (Commercial), Eastern Academic Health Science Network Perspectives on privacy and security Alisa discussed older people’s perspectives on privacy and security. This included reference to how older people make decisions about privacy and security with respect to smart home devices. What we know is that at present, much of the adoption of smart home tech is driven by older people’s children, and care providers, to support care needs. And it remains the case that a high proportion of older adults don’t have access to the internet. Alisa noted that...
I had the pleasure of chairing the fourth in The Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) series on Healthy Living and Housing. The focus for this session was on reducing social isolation and loneliness. You can access the session by clicking the link here and registering to watch on demand. Speakers for this session included Smriti Kotiyal, Research Assistant, University of Bradford
Marianne Wanstall, CEO, The Brendoncare Foundation
Heather Claridge, Principal Design Officer, Architecture & Design Scotland
COVID-19 and the role of technology
Smriti began by discussing the significant role that technology, including communication technologies, has played in managing COVID-19. COVID-19 is often compared to the 1918 Spanish Flu and 2009 H1N1 outbreak. Today we have improved capacity, diagnostic tools and communications. For example, current global internet usage sits at 53.6% compared to 25.8% in 2009. This has very much facilitated improved knowledge sharing and better use of technological advancements. The use of technology to reduce the spread of COVID-19 has not been without controversy. China is one...
This was the third webinar in the The Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) series on Healthy Living and Housing. The focus for this session was on monitoring vulnerable patients and remote diagnostics. You can access the session by clicking the link here and registering to watch on demand. Speakers for this session included Jessie Cunnett, Head of Health and Social Care at Traverse
Tara Marshall, Clinical Improvement Lead at the Eastern Academic Health Science Network
Daniel Casson, Digital Social Care, Digital Transformation Adviser, Care England and Managing Director of Casson Consulting London.
The experience of digital care
COVID-19 has radically transformed the delivery of health and care with a rapid shift towards virtual consultations. However, little research had been done on understanding the virtual health and care experience, and how this might differ across populations and care requirements. To understand this, Traverse, alongside Healthwatch and National Voices, conducted research on understanding the virtual health and care experience. Jessie discussed the recent report, The Doctor will Zoom you now. The...
I had the pleasure of chairing the second in a series of webinars for The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) on Healthy Living and Housing. The focus for this session was on care homes and community care. This built on the first session that focused on the links between our lived environments and our health. You can access the session by clicking the link here, and registering to watch on demand. Speakers for this session included Shirley Ayres, Co-Founder, Connected Care Network*
Dai Roberts, Senior Programme Innovation Lead, Health Innovation Manchester
Shirley Hall, Head of Innovation and Wellbeing, The ExtraCare Charitable Trust
Lee Fordham, Associate Director, Architype https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCLAr06knLg Clip from The IET’s EngShorts series covering many of the points raised in this discussion. Creating new living choices for older people
Shirley Ayres outlined some of the opportunities and challenges in the care sector, calling for a radically different approach. For Shirley, it’s time we had a long term care revolution. To put in today’s context, this is clearly a...
I had the pleasure of chairing a webinar for The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) on Healthy Living and Housing. This was the first of a six part series looking at the interplay between our lived environments and our health. You can access the session by clicking the link here, and registering. The next session is on 16 September and examines health and home in the context of care homes and community care. Speakers for this session included Julie Godefroy, Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers
Dr Richard Miller, Connected Places Catapult
Annalise Johns, Connected Places Catapult
Dr Helen Crampin, InnovateUK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxDnI9pWYbA Clip from The IET's EngShorts series covering many of the points raised in this discussion. What we know and don’t know about the impact of the built environment
Julie provided an overview of the role of CIBSE and their recent guidance, Health and wellbeing in building services. The focus of the guidance is on the effects of the built environment on health, comfort...
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