ACADEMY
Mentoring, training, and support for Futurenoughts
What are non-technical barriers to net zero?
The Net Zero Living Thriving Places programme has been established to overcome non-technical barriers.
Non-technical barriers refer to challenges and hindrances in the pursuit of net zero that arise from social, economic, political, behavioral, or cultural factors.
These obstacles are distinct from technical challenges and do not include issues with the application of technology or scientific principles.
The programme targets specific non-technical barriers to help places accelerate local transitions and open-up markets to support the rapid scale up and adoption of net zero solutions: net zero planning, citizen engagement, business engagement, data, finance, policy and regulations.
Business engagement sprint: heat, power, and retrofitting
Challenges across heat, power, and retrofit were identified in the first business engagement sprint in November.
Run by Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), the sprints are designed to establish local net zero innovation pipelines in response to challenges raised by Futurenoughts.
Lack of funding, market failures, the need for new business models, and competition with the private sector were identified as challenges by Futurenoughts.
Two individual Futurenoughts (Jonathan Ward and Simon Richards) volunteered to act as sponsors for this sprint. This has seen them working with Innovate UK KTN to produce a current status report that collates guidance and case studies that are currently available to support you to overcome these challenges.
The draft report will be shared via the community platform for comments and the next steps will include:
- a curated business directory for retrofitting heritage buildings (advice, design, contractors and traders)
- recordings of interviews with businesses offering further understanding of the available solutions
- policy insights with DESNZ covering short, medium, and long-term plans
- support live programme to identify gaps/barriers.
Second business engagement sprint: vote for the next theme
Voting will soon open for the next sprint theme. Keep an eye on the community platform - when the vote is live, let Innovate UK KTN know what you’d like to focus on.
The KTN will also be looking for Futurenoughts to act as sponsors for the sprint. This will be discussed in more detail at the Future Ready gathering in February.