The Deputy Mayor of London for Environment and Energy Mete Coban MBE visited the White City Deep Tech Campus.
The Deputy Mayor of London for Environment and Energy Mete Coban MBE learned about Imperial's role in supporting climate innovation, green entrepreneurship and air quality research as part of the Imperial WestTech Corridor – helping to tackling climate change and improving the environment across London and beyond.
The Deputy Mayor was joined by local politicians, including Councillor Stephen Cowan, Leader of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham (LBHF), James Small Edwards, Member of the London Assembly for West Central, and Councillor Wesley Harcourt, Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Ecology at LBHF.
Mete saw first-hand how the White City Deep Tech Campus and White City Innovation District are creating the conditions for innovative climate startups and scaleups to flourish, with wide ranging access to cutting edge equipment, networking opportunities, facilities and expertise.
Undaunted Showcase – nurturing a climate innovation ecosystem
The Deputy Mayor heard from three cleantech startups who showcased their companies. The startups received support from Undaunted, Imperial's climate innovation hub, run in partnership with the Royal Institution. Undaunted's vision is to nurture a climate innovation ecosystem that enables the creation of scalable innovative solutions to the climate challenge at pace.
Alyssa Gilbert, Director of Undaunted, highlighted Undaunted's range of programmes which make up a thriving innovation ecosystem supporting climate innovators at different stages of their entrepreneurship journey. These include support for early-stage innovators through the Green Together programme, and support for scaleups and SMEs through the Better Futures Retrofit Accelerator programme.
The three startups who showcased to the Deputy Mayor were:
- Anzen – specialising in low-carbon decentralised heating, cooling, and ventilation systems, with the goal to tackle poor indoor air quality and indoor heating inefficiency for all households.
- Cyanoskin – a new carbon capture technology utilising an algae based-coating designed to transform buildings into carbon dioxide-absorbing structures, reducing emissions and addressing urban pollution.
- Vuala – working to make food waste recycling easy with an automatic food waste separation technology, allowing food waste to be stored for months without smell, delaying collection frequency and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
Puraffinity – developing sustainable solutions for environmental benefit
Henrik Hagemann, Chief Product and Innovation Officer and Co-Founder of Puraffinity – an Imperial student startup – showed Mete around the company's labs and offices based in Scale Space. Mete saw how Puraffinity is developing sustainable solutions for environmental benefit by removing harmful pollutants from water and wastewater.
Puraffinity's precision technologies remove toxic "forever chemicals" known as PFAS from water, which persist in the environment for many years, and have been linked to multiple health issues, including cancer.
Mete also heard about how Imperial's entrepreneurial ecosystem has supported green companies like Puraffinity on their growth journey - including through Undaunted's climate accelerator programme, known as The Greenhouse.
The company was formed in 2015 by Henrik Hagemann and Gabi Santosa, at the time both Master's students in Imperial's Department of Bioengineering. The founders took part in several Imperial entrepreneurship programmes. Puraffinity were among the first residents of the White City Incubator in 2017 before graduating to larger lab facilities at Scale Space in 2021 after a period of accelerated growth.
Last September, Puraffinity completed their £17 million Series A funding round, which will enable them to scale up their manufacturing capabilities from product to market, so that their PFAS-capturing material can meet demand, including treatment of drinking water and environmental remediation.
Environmental Research Group – improving air quality across London and beyond
Mete also visited Imperial's Environmental Research Group (ERG) led by Professor Frank Kelly CBE, Battcock Chair in Community Health and Policy. Mete learned about the work the ERG do to determine the health impacts of air and water pollution.
Professor Kelly explained the ERG's research in indoor air pollution, including the West London Healthy Home and Environment Study (WellHome). WellHome focuses on the air quality of over 100 homes of children with asthma and is co-designed with the local community in White City. The study aims to identify air pollution exposures across both indoor and outdoor environments and identify behavioural changes that can reduce this exposure and improve health outcomes.
The ERG has worked closely with the Greater London Authority and the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan on providing air quality data to inform policies to improve air quality across London.
In December 2020, the ERG and the Mayor of London launched Breathe London, a new partnership to tackle air pollution in London. The project oversees low-cost sensors being installed at hospitals, schools and other priority locations, giving communities access to affordable and reliable air quality data.
