Sustainable Innovation Report 2023

26/07/2023

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Reddie & Grose’s Sustainable Innovation report: an investigation into the start ups, companies, and technology transfer offices making significant contributions to inventions with the potential to address the climate and ecological crises.

The launch of our report has been tailored to coincide with London Climate Action Week (LCAW) 2023. This is the third year that we have participated in LCAW events. In 2021, we focussed on “Innovations for a sustainable lifestyle” and invited attendees to take part in our online seminar (report here). In 2022, we invited stakeholders in the Intellectual Property ecosystem to our online panel discussion and asked them the question “Is the Intellectual Property System doing enough to support innovators in Net Zero and Green Tech?”. The report of that event (and the answer to the question) can be found here). This year we are kicking off our report into sustainable innovation.

Clean tech and sustainable innovations arise in many existing technology sectors, including manufacturing, materials, electricity generation and storage, building, computing, transport, packaging and recycling. We wanted to develop this report in order to better understand the pioneering work being carried out by innovators in the UK in these sectors.

To do this, we have looked at patent applications being published in the European Patent Office’s (EPO) patent classification (Y02) dedicated to ‘technologies or applications for mitigation or adaptation against climate change’. We have also partnered with data analytics firm Beauhurst to uncover financial and investor information pertaining to start ups and fund raising bodies in the UK.

In each report, we will also be conducting a deeper dive into a particular sector. In this edition, we take a closer look at energy related innovations.

This article is for general information only. Its content is not a statement of the law on any subject and does not constitute advice. Please contact Reddie & Grose LLP for advice before taking any action in reliance on it.