Our cleantech and innovation work

‘Cleantech’ describes those products and services that avoid or repair harmful effects on the environment caused by human activity. These products and services are central to a low-carbon economy and will need to be the norm in a zero-carbon London.

In 2016, the LSDC published Better Future: A Route Map to Creating a Cleantech Cluster in London. This seminal report recognised the scale of the challenge set at the COP21 Paris Climate talks, but also the opportunity for London to develop new businesses and technologies to meet the climate challenge. Crucially, the report found that:

• London’s low carbon economy currently generates around £30.4bn annually. Some 10,900 businesses employ 192,416 people
• although the capital has the UK’s greatest concentration of green businesses, it is growing at just over half the global rate
• one reason London’s budding cleantech sector is not reaching its full potential is that it is currently scattered across the capital; this means that the sector is not gaining the well-known benefits of ‘clustering’

Clusters allow innovations to flourish by grouping together individual organisations and facilities working in a shared field or sector – research institutions, business start-ups, laboratory and manufacturing spaces and so on – so that knowledge, expertise and technologies can be shared more easily.

The report’s key proposition was for London to generate a ‘cleantech innovation cluster’ in West London and at Old Oak and Park Royal, creating a strong, creative focus for London’s drive to a low-carbon future.

The LSDC's current cleantech and innovation priorities are:

• advising the Greater London Authority (GLA) on the cluster’s development
• providing recommendations for actions that would speed up and strengthen the development of cleantech in London
• providing recommendations for actions that would attract more women into the sector, and keep them there
• acting as the Advisory Board to the Mayor's Better Futures project
• helping to raise the voice and profile of London’s cleantech community

As a precursor to its work on Cleantech and Innovation, the LSDC explored green entrepreneurship in London and produced several reports on the subject:

• Green Entrepreneurship in London - Scoping Report
• Green Entrepreneurs Workshop Write-up
• Green Means Business Report