Innovation in the Built Environment: Celebrating 100+ Start Up Members  

Discover how UKGBC is supporting innovators striving to create a more sustainable built environment, and our plans to help them scale.

UKGBC has exceeded 100 innovative start-up members, a significant milestone highlighting our efforts to showcase and help scale the solutions needed to radically transform the sustainability of the built environment. This collection of exciting companies with solutions ranging from construction systems and building materials to design tools, optimisation software and upskilling platforms.   

We have been running a variety of activities to support this growing community for the past few years to provide them with access to valuable market insight and profiling opportunities. This includes  our quarterly Innovative Start-Up Forum which enables innovators to network with other industry professionals and discuss challenges and learnings. Our investor matchmaking events connect start-ups with potential investors and our Solutions & Innovation Advisory Scheme helps start-ups receive guidance and support with navigating the complexities of the industry and refining their value proposition. We also work to raise awareness of solutions from both start-ups and larger organisations through UKGBC’s Innovation Showcase webinar series and Solutions Library. 

While start-ups often bring solutions to market, innovation can also occur within project teams, corporates, communities and academic institutions. This can either drive the creation of radical new solutions or incrementally improve upon existing ones to increase their efficiency, affordability and scalability. Innovators can also help identify how to combine existing solutions to maximise impact or how to create new structures, policies, processes or business models to enable more widespread deployment. 

This type of innovation becomes even more pertinent when we consider that many solutions fall victim to the so-called “valley of death”, meeting challenges in scaling up from initial research & development through to full scale deployment. The built environment presents many of its own distinctive challenges: companies are often risk averse, project lifecycles are long, procurement processes are complex, and many stakeholders must be on board. 

To address this and further our support for innovators (both within start-ups and more broadly), UKGBC is developing a new initiative called “Scaling Sustainable Solutions for the Built Environment” to enable more ‘on the ground’ action. UKGBC is uniquely positioned to deliver this area of work due to our 700+ member organisations, which span the entire built environment value chain (including the 100+ start-ups), and our understanding of sustainability challenges facing industry. Crucially, we were referenced in a Government report last year calling for UKGBC to encourage “greater testing and piloting of innovative solutions in the built environment.” This initiative is a direct response to that call to action and has been developed through interviews and workshops with UKGBC members.  

As part of this initiative, we want to leverage our network and our expertise to identify barriers to scaling and recommend ways these barriers can be overcome. We also aim to significantly increase the implementation of solutions on projects and within organisations through the development of a matchmaking service, and we are looking for ambitious and forward-thinking organisations to work with us. If this is of interest, please do get in touch and / or join us at our upcoming Winter Social on November 21st, where you’ll be able to speed network with our innovative start-up members.  

UKGBC recognises the crucial role innovation plays in creating a more sustainable built environment and is uniquely positioned to help drive the adoption of impactful solutions. By fostering collaboration, offering support, and removing barriers, UKGBC is committed to enabling real change in this decade of action. We are very proud to work with over 100 start-ups that are leading the transformation of the built environment, and we invite all innovators and organisations passionate about sustainability to join us on this journey. 

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It’s exciting to have exceeded 100+ innovative start-ups in our membership, each seeking to scale their own impactful solutions, from construction systems and materials to digital tools and platforms. Reaching this milestone shows the growing momentum of this area and the appetite for change. We continue to leverage our network and expertise, to support the scaling of solutions and break down barriers to adoption, and we are calling on innovators and wider industry to join us in this mission.”
Yetunde Abdul Director of Industry Transformation UKGBC
Scaling innovative solutions can be a challenge in the built environment, for example achieving certification is so critical but many innovations don’t fit neatly into existing regulatory frameworks. At AirEx Technologies, securing BBA certification for our smart underfloor draught-proofing system was a pivotal step in gaining market credibility and unlocking large-scale deployment opportunities and there are many learnings from this process. UKGBC has a unique role in the industry to help share these learnings between innovators navigating these processes, connect them with the right organisations, unlock systemic barriers to scaling and provide a platform to showcase solutions.”
Agnes Czako CEO Airex
Innovation is at the core of transforming the built environment into a sustainability-led industry. For organisations involved in design, manufacturing and construction, sustainable solutions are no longer just beneficial — they are essential to meet rigorous sustainability targets and respond proactively to evolving environmental regulations.  One Click LCA’s growth —  and the adoption of our decarbonisation tools —  is testament to the increasing need for sustainability to be embedded across the built environment, from the earliest stages of design. Partnering with UKGBC enables us to reach more manufacturers and AEC organisations who need to decarbonise their products, portfolios, and projects, and ensure a sustainable and secure future for their business.”
Johanna Jarvinen New Products Lead One Click LCA

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