Sustainable Ventures has launched a major climate tech hub in the heart of Manchester, located in the recently Grade 2 listed Renold Building.
The hub will be able to host over 100 businesses and provide business advice and support to help climate tech start ups in Manchester and in the North of England scale faster and create jobs in the region.
Located at the heart of Sister, Manchester’s new innovation district, the hub has been built out of innovative matericals sourced from pioneering local companies.
The private and public sector backed hub has been powered by investment from Barclays and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and builds upon the success of the Sustainable Ventures hub in London.
Established in 2011, Sustainable Ventures says it has built Europe’s largest climate tech startup community.
Located in key regions across the UK and Europe, the programmes of Sustainable Ventures have supported 1,000+ startups, achieving a success rate of 85% — compared to the industry average of <60% — generated 7,000 plus green jobs and provided £1.2 billion in funding.
Famous for its brutalist architecture, the Renold Building opened in 1962 as part of The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), providing a home for generations of engineering students.
It now forms the first phase of Sister — a joint venture between Bruntwood SciTech and The University of Manchester.
Sustainable Ventures, Sister and Barclays have supported more than 15 pioneering companies to install and trial their sustainable material innovations across the Renold Building.
“Many innovations integrated in the space have been sourced from the Sustainable Ventures’ community based in Manchester, start-ups from within the Sister ecosystem and spinouts from The University of Manchester and the surrounding area,” said Sustainable Ventures.
“The innovations include low carbon wall tiles by Dekiln, sheep wall acoustic tiles by Wull Technologies, carbon negative bricks made by earth4earth, and partition walls made from 100% breathable, natural fibre board consisting of hemp straw and a mineral binding agent by Ubuild.
“Sustainable Ventures Manchester hub will also provide expert business support for climate tech companies strengthening Greater Manchester’s competitive advantages …
“First businesses to be based in the centre include The Carbon Literacy Project, Hydrogen Safe, Fuuse, SkenarioLabs and CQuel, with an ambition to welcome over 100 businesses in the space.
“The new hub and its tenants,will create hundreds of high-skilled jobs across the region, and support the UK’s wider net-zero journey by focusing predominantly on the built environment and energy sectors, although the climate tech hub will open its doors to anyone working in climate tech in the north west.
“Sustainable Ventures workspace provides a central location to bring together the climate tech community from across the North West and join the ever-growing Sustainable Ventures ecosystem.
“Within the Renold building Sustainable Ventures are running a sustainably stocked cafe-bar, which complements a range of circular-designed event hubs and breakout spaces that can comfortably accommodate 250+ people, with views across the new Sister innovation campus.”
Cllr Bev Craig, Leader Manchester City Council, said: “This hub is doing what Manchester does best – bringing together the right expertise from a broad range of disciplines to deliver our vision for low carbon investment and economic growth.
“This is at the core of what we want to achieve in the city and locating this hub at the heart of Manchester’s new innovation district provides unparalleled opportunity to combine the strengths of the public sector and academia, alongside commercial partners, to deliver great outcomes for the climate tech businesses in our city and the wider region.”
James Byrne, Partner, Sustainable Ventures, said: “We’re thrilled to co-invest with regional partners into this exceptionally well located climate tech hub at Sister in Manchester.
“The unique approach to its development, has accelerated the use of innovative sustainable materials many of which have come from the local area or are supported by Greater Manchester’s world class academic institutions.
“As the UK’s leading growth partner for climate tech businesses, we are excited to bring together over 100 businesses as part of our hub to support Manchester’s continued climate tech growth trajectory.”
Bradley Topps, Project Director at Sister and Chief Commercial Officer for Bruntwood SciTech, said: “Just 12 months ago we opened the doors to the Renold Innovation Hub, the first phase of our ambitious 15-year regeneration project. The launch of Sustainable Ventures’ northern hub is a natural next step in growing this ecosystem.
“They’ve already demonstrated their impact by bringing local suppliers of low-carbon building technologies into the transformation of the Renold Building and their own space – showcasing the collaborative way in which they operate. Their presence at Sister brings huge potential to accelerate support for climate tech innovators and partners across the region and beyond.”
Steven Poulter, Head of Barclays Climate Ventures, said: “With its world-class universities, research institutions and advanced manufacturing base, the UK is well positioned to become the global centre for climate technology innovation, driving both decarbonisation and economic growth.
“Barclays Climate Ventures is proud to back Sustainable Ventures’ UK expansion, helping accelerate the scale up of climate tech by drawing on Barclays’ expertise as an advisor, financier and strategic investor.”