NATWEST Group has become the Supply Chain Sustainability School’s first partner within the finance sector, with a shared objective of addressing climate change through building the skills of the construction industry to retrofit buildings.
The School has over 200 partners within the built environment industry and their supply chains. Its platform offers free training to 80,000 registered users, covering retrofit as well as 17 sustainability topics including energy & carbon and waste & circular economy.
With NatWest Group’s support, the School’s retrofit initiatives have been tipped to accelerate ‘significantly’, bringing partners together to shape the programme, share knowledge and up-skill the wider industry on retrofit.
Ian Heptonstall, director of the Supply Chain Sustainability School, said, “Our mission is to enable a sustainable built environment through knowledge and collaboration, however most of our work to date has focused on new builds. To truly fulfil our mission, we must pivot towards the existing building stock, crafting and delivering learning experiences that empower the UK to retrofit its structures with cutting-edge technologies and systems, positioning us to fulfil our net zero commitments. We look forward to tackling climate change through retrofit with NatWest Group.”
NatWest Group aims to support the decarbonisation of UK properties. By working with the built environment industry, the organisation intends to build a ‘robust’ supply chain to develop efficiency upgrades at scale.
James Close, head of climate change at NatWest Group, commented, “As one of the largest lenders in the UK, we have a key role to play in supporting consumers and businesses in transitioning to more energy efficient homes and buildings that are warmer, cheaper to heat, and generate lower emissions. Decarbonising properties will require retrofitting existing buildings to increase their energy efficiency, constructing new energy efficient buildings and decarbonisation of electricity and heating supply.
“We want to work at scale to increase demand. But we need the skills and companies to carry out the work and we also want to make it as easy for our customers to retrofit as possible. Our collaboration with the Supply Chain Sustainability School will help cultivate a more mature retrofit supply chain, share knowledge and build the skills needed to retrofit homes and buildings across the UK.”
The School’s retrofit programme, sponsored by NatWest, will be unveiled through a virtual conference taking place on November 7, 2023.
