Impact-led innovation: investors’ friend or foe?

by Sophie Taysom Comment Closed
 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...
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Responding to COVID-19: The future of intelligent homes

Responding to COVID-19: The future of intelligent homes

by Sophie Taysom Comment Closed
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...
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Integrating health and housing

Integrating health and housing

by Sophie Taysom Comment Closed
Does housing affect health? We know in the UK that there is a significant shortfall in housing. The Housing Federation puts this figure as an annual shortfall of 340k homes a year just to meet requirements. In addition to this, many people live in unhealthy or unsuitable homes, or live in precarious situations. These factors can have a significant and detrimental impact on health outcomes. And there are some people who are particularly vulnerable – babies and children, people with disabilities, and older people. This is not just about housing, but also public health. How do we integrate health and housing? This was the question to kick off a webinar discussion in July facilitated by Ethan Williams, researcher at the King’s Fund. Panelists included: Rachel Toms - Programme Manager, Healthy Places, Public Health England Rachael Byrne - Executive Director, New Models of Care, Home Group Vic Rayner - Executive Director, National Care Forum This report has been updated following the publication of Creating...
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