Centre boosting buildings' green credentials hails economic contribution

Built Environment – Smarter Transformation (BE-ST) is cheering the fact that it helped industry partners to create and safeguard 900-plus jobs in the year to July.

The organisation, which is based in Hamilton International Technology Park and earlier this year rebranded from the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre, said its annual impact report also found that its work supported nearly £378 million of additional revenues for businesses with which it engaged over 46 projects, while saving an estimated 640,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

BE-ST – which aims to accelerate the built environment’s transition to zero carbon – also leveraged more than £10m of investment from industry and public sector sources for relevant projects.

Its chief executive Stephen Good said: “The last 12 months have been a period of planned change for BE-ST, with our expanded remit in response to industry need, the establishment of a number of key international partnerships, and our sharper focus on the built environment’s transition to zero carbon.

"It is highly encouraging to see the impact this is already having on the organisations and businesses we work with... and we look forward to building on the promising start made over the last year.

“Our impact assessment demonstrates that you can grow revenues and support jobs while reducing your business’s impact on the environment... it is [also] worth emphasising our message that no single organisation will deliver zero carbon transformation on its own – innovation through collaboration is more important than it has ever been.”

BE-ST added that since its inception in 2014, its projects have generated an additional £1.8 billion of revenues for companies involved, creating and safeguarding nearly 11,000 jobs.