A new Innovation Lab has been unveiled by the UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC).

The facility will identify and address systemic challenges facing businesses in the built environment sector.

Lead partners on the nine-month programme are Canary Wharf Group, Land Securities and Marks & Spencer.

Head of Leadership and Innovation at UK-GBC, Cat Hirst, said: "Research and Development levels across our industry are painfully low; the UK currently only spends £43m on construction R&D.

"The risks to a single company of investing in developing a solution for such a high-cost industry is often seen as prohibitive. But we desperately need to find ways of working together to achieve radical change if we are to challenge business as usual and transition to a sustainable way of working.


"The Innovation Lab is not just about finding one solution to one problem, it's about fostering a more open and collaborative approach to problem solving as an industry. We need to build the capacity of our industry to innovate and find the right approach to being creative and collaborative within a commercial setting."

The initiative got underway last month with a workshop to identify the breakthrough challenge, which will form the focus of the work programme. The initial event highlighted key industry challenges around climate change resilience, resource use, shifting demographics, technological advancement and health and wellbeing.

The next workshop will take place on 01 February.

(LM/JP)