Wates Launches Online Innovation Portal

Wates Group launched a self-service, interactive and intelligent marketplace for sustainable innovation on 1^st March 2021.

The new Wates Innovation Network (WIN) portal is the first initiative of its kind and is designed to help businesses ‘build back better’, by connecting companies directly, and free of charge, with partners that can offer solutions to help meet sustainability targets.

It also aims to create an industry-leading network that will accelerate the transition to net zero by showcasing smarter solution to help design, construction and maintain buildings.

The marketplace is currently home to 42 innovation partners approved by a screening panel, including 40 environmental experts, from systems that improve energy efficiency to circular economy office furniture. Users also have a choice to filter sustainable innovations based on their requirements, to help them find the product and suppler most suited to them and their needs.

Wates has been working to connect businesses with tech-led innovations for eight years through its Wates Sustainable Technology Services (WSTS) offering. Organisations including Barings, Merseyside Police, Standard Chartered Bank Plc and the Wates Group itself have previously used the innovation network to source technologies, improve efficiencies, and further develop ambitious new climate pledges. The new online portal will streamline this process with a more dynamic and efficient customer experience, enabling the Group to better support partners in providing tangible environmental and operational savings. Wates also intends to use the portal as a means of expanding the current marketplace of green technologies which can be used within the built environment.

John Dunne, Group Health, Safety, Environment and Quality Director at Wates Group, commented: “The market for sustainable solutions is expanding fast and companies who are not investing in innovations will soon be unable to compete. The issue is 95% of market ready sustainable technologies never get considered because key decision makers do not know they exist, or suppliers don’t have access to the key corporate decision makers. The WIN portal is bridging that gap, showcasing innovation and helping businesses to meet bold environmental targets.”

The WIN portal has been launched after the Group announced its five-year strategy to help reduce the industry’s environmental impact, supporting the Government’s target of net zero buildings, and fostering the growth of sustainable, innovative SMEs across the UK. Wates has committed to eliminating waste and carbon from its own operations by 2025.

In November, Wates joined forces with Energy Specifics to deliver a zero-carbon retrofitting service for social housing landlords, which will deploy technologies from WIN to help local authorities and housing associations to prepare their housing stock to meet zero carbon obligations.

If you would like to read more stories like this, then please click here