IASP Sustainability

The 2021 United Nation Climate Change Conference saw all 197 countries reaffirm their pledge to the Paris Agreement of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C, and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C. IASP Sustainability was founded to  help coordinate these efforts and allow IASP members to learn from each other’s best practices. For STPs and AOIs there will be fundamental changes to real estate and working practices, with managers having to work ever more closely with resident companies as all stakeholders in the innovation value chain adopt clean energy targets. In addition to limiting climate change, we will also be required to play our part in wider environmental sustainability efforts, covering various areas including water, food, soil, waste and overall biodiversity.

In the coming year, the group will focus on:

• Regulatory change with associated lessons learned
• Practical changes to reducing carbon emissions and mitigating against emergent climate change impacts (e.g. risk of flooding)
• Practical changes associated with wider environmental factors (waste, water, food etc)
• Practical changes in social value / well being
• STP/AOI – tenant (and potentially wider) partnerships in implementing the above.

This will be delivered through a series of three online webinars to share, discuss and learn from each other. The first took place in January 2023, and featured presentations from Surrey Research Park (UK), Thailand Science Park (Thailand), PIIT Monterrey (Mexico), Lakeside Science and Technology Park (Austria) and Area Science Park (Italy).

The Surrey Research Park CEO, Grant Bourhill, whose initiative this is, will act as coordinator of the group: to join, contact SRPinfo@surrey.ac.uk