The built environment is responsible for approximately 40% of energy use and around 40% of the UK’s total carbon footprint. Decarbonising buildings is a critical element in creating the net zero carbon economy to which the UK has committed to achieving by 2050. Globally, 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings, which use approximately 40% of the world’s raw materials.

Sustainable real estate also provides opportunities for tenants and owners alike – often offering more attractive rental/sales prospects through more efficient and affordable operating costs, and greener reputations. And whether for intrinsic reasons, or in anticipation of growing legislation, demand for sustainable real estate stock (both new and retrofitted) is on the rise.

In October 2022, Bridges invested in Evora Global, a UK consultancy that helps clients around the world to improve the sustainability and reduce the climate risk of their real estate portfolios. The consultancy provides services to many of the biggest names in global real estate investment, across 10 offices and 38 countries. Its proprietary software, SIERA, helps its clients to leverage data and make better investment decisions around sustainability.

Bridges’ market-leading credentials in the area of sustainability and impact, including its status as a ‘Best for the World’ B Corp, along with its track record as a sustainable real estate investor, was a clear differentiator for the team.

Evora is committed to ensuring buildings can be sustainable – as well as productive, profitable, and resilient to change. Since inception, it has mobilised and managed sustainability data for approximately 8,000 assets, and its services range from ESG strategy to data intelligence, smart buildings to its newly-introduced social wellbeing services.

Evora’s recent expansion into the US demonstrates both real demand for its services, and the continued opportunity to make huge impact in a sector that needs urgent change.

www.evoraglobal.com

For years, economies have enjoyed growth based on an assumption that resources are effectively infinite; a culture has developed where we endlessly create, consume and discard. Around 50m tonnes of waste goes to landfill each year in the UK, significantly contributing to CO2 emissions, while just 9% of the global economy is considered circular. So there is a huge opportunity – and a clear imperative – to convert the remaining 80 billion+ tonnes of material extracted for use annually to a more sustainable lifecycle.

The circular economy is growing across different sectors, from re-commerce to plastic, electronic waste to clothing – striving to reduce the consumption of raw materials and energy, and protect or even regenerate our natural environment. Moreover, consumers are increasingly choosing to purchase from more sustainably-minded brands, giving those businesses a competitive edge.

World of Books Group is a circular economy technology business that has pioneered the reuse and recycling of used books. It has grown to become one of the biggest sellers of used books globally – selling a book somewhere in the world every two seconds. WOB’s market-leading algorithms, built upon over two decades of innovation and sales data, have made it a best-in-class re-commerce technology business.

World of Books has seen strong growth and momentum through the expansion its website worldofbooks.com, ‘direct from consumer’ sourcing via its app, and a successful launch in the US.

Crucially, World of Books’ model means that items don’t end up in landfill, reducing CO2 emissions and waste. In FY24, it rehomed 31.4m books, diverting over 13,000 tonnes of books from waste – equivalent to saving over 225,000 trees. It also donated another 1m books to good causes via its Foundation and supported more than 50,000 authors.

WOB is a certified B Corporation, meaning that it meets the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability.

https://www.wob.com/

www.worldofbooks.com

In 2018, the UK’s transport sector was the largest emitter of net domestic greenhouse gases (28%); and in 2019, 91% of the country’s transport emissions were produced by road transport vehicles. Since 1990, van traffic has doubled and van emissions have increased by 67%.

The Future of Mobility has been a key target sector for SGF: high growth, with a large addressable market and clear lock-step between growth and impact outcomes. Sector-specific technology-driven solutions continue to gain traction, from electric and hydrogen powered vehicles to low cost, low carbon & high-efficiency operating innovations, to essential improvements in road safety.

Matrix iQ provides cutting-edge software-based solutions to enable the efficient management of fleets. Data collected provides operators and clients with insights into risk, location and utilisation, including granular details on driver braking and acceleration habits, which help to mitigate exhaust emissions plus tyre wear and tear (which can leave particles on the roadside). As well as limiting the environmental impact of fleets, Matrix’s technology has an economic benefit for fleet managers (by minimising fuel usage via efficient routing and managing vehicle maintenance) and can improve driver behaviour and safety (reducing accidents and mitigating insurance premiums).

Accelerating the growth of Matrix’s core SaaS-based telematics solutions means more operators and drivers are able to limit their carbon emissions and cultivate highly efficient fleets – an essential part of any strategy for the UK to reach its ‘net zero by 2050’ target. Building out the business’ occupational road risk management solution, DRiiVE, means improving driver behaviour, via electronic vehicle checks, data-driven driver feedback, and even real-time driver interventions – in turn increasing safety on the roads. Data collected is also helping to inform client suitability for and successful transition to electric vehicles.

Today’s conscious consumers are increasingly looking to buy from from brands that share their values. So businesses that are thoughtful about impact across their entire model – from using sustainable materials and processes, to proper treatment of staff, to trading fairly with suppliers – can often find themselves at a competitive advantage. In parallel, as consumers spend more time at home in the post-Covid world – and do more and more of their shopping online – we saw an opportunity to invest in online homeware retail, a market that is already worth £2bn and is expected to grow at c.8% p/a in the coming years.

Founded in 2002, Nkuku is a retailer selling handmade and ethical homeware and lifestyle products. The Bridges team identified Nkuku as an authentic, purpose-led brand well-positioned to develop into an ESG leader within its category, given the strength of its mission to support and work with independent businesses, fair trade enterprises, social projects and co-operatives around the globe. The business values transparency with its suppliers and supports economic empowerment through ethical trade, while also striving to minimise its impact on the environment. For example, it uses sustainable and natural materials, focuses on traditional methods of production and curates collections that last beyond seasonal trends. Products are available primarily via Nkuku’s e-commerce site, and its existing B2B channel continues to grow.

Nkuku is well-placed to spearhead and champion the role of ‘ethical consumerism’ in the premium homeware market. It works with around 4,300 employees in the supply chain, across 45 Tier 1 suppliers who hold an external supply chain certification such as WFTO, SEDEX or BCI. 100% of suppliers either have this Tier 1 certification or have signed Nkuku’s supplier manual. Post Bridges’ investment, the business is committed to refining and optimising its approach to impact measurement and management.

An important way to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy is to make much greater use of clean and renewable energy to power our homes.

Clean energy sector is a high-growth sector: according to the International Energy Agency, the increase in global power capacity from 2020 to 2026 will be almost 95% renewables.

As well as helping to mitigate climate change, this switch to clean energy can also reduce dependence on imported fuels, increase resilience to price volatility, and support economic development and green jobs.

Based in Germany, HYCUBE Technologies provides a complete decentralised clean energy system to homeowners. Its offering combines solar panels, proprietary high-tech battery storage, an electric vehicle ‘wallbox’, proprietary smart home energy management software and ancillaries to improve energy independence and efficiency – bringing the benefits of clean energy to millions of family households, and supporting the transition to a lower-carbon economy.

HYCUBE is benefiting from some helpful macro tailwinds: in Germany alone, the market for renewable energy systems is already worth is already worth almost €5bn, and this figure is expected to almost double in the next five years.

HYCUBE’s offering enables customers to cut their grid electricity consumption by 80-90%. This substantially reduces energy bills while also mitigating carbon emissions from fossil fuel usage: early estimates suggest the business could be delivering annual carbon savings of approximately 12,000 tonnes by 2026.

Bridges’ investment will enable HYCUBE to expand its provision to significantly more households in Germany, working directly with customers and through established installers.

With so much of our daily lives now powered by technology – a trend accelerated by the rise of remote and digital working post-Covid – data security has become a significant ESG issue. According to the World Economic Forum, cybersecurity is now one of the five key risks facing businesses globally: more than 80% of UK companies have experienced a successful cyber-attack in the last year. This is creating strong demand for services that can help companies digitise and secure their critical data: the electronic data storage market is forecast to grow at about 15% in the coming years.

Storetec, based in Hull, provides outsourced document scanning, archive storage and cloud-based document management solutions to businesses in both the public and private sectors, including NHS Trusts, councils, FTSE 100 companies, professional services firms and SMEs. This enables the 400+ organisations it works with each year to protect their most sensitive data and build more sustainable digital workflows.

The company has multiple gold standard accreditations and has won numerous awards for the quality and security of its services, including Business of the Year (for its digitisation business) and Records Management Product of the Year (for FreeDocs) at the Document Management Awards.

Over the last decade, Storetec has digitised over 333m paper records: FreeDocs, its proprietary digital platform, now stores over 8,000GB of data. For customers, Storetec’s services enable improved data protection, regulatory compliance and archives access, and – by supporting their digitisation journey – lower carbon emissions via reduced paper consumption.

https://www.storetec.net/

Electronic waste is a growing environmental challenge globally. According to the UN, 54m tonnes of e-waste was produced globally in 2019, and 83% of this was not recycled sustainably, typically ending up in landfill (where it can be extremely toxic). The U.K. alone generated 1.5m tonnes of e-waste – equivalent to 55kg per household, the second highest total in Europe.

At the same time, the IT lifecycle means there is growing demand from corporates for secure, sustainable IT asset disposal. By reusing or recycling computers, we can not only avert this damage but also preserve and create economic value: relative to landfill or incinerator disposal, a more sustainable approach could create an estimated 296 more jobs annually (for every 10,000 tonnes of computer waste processed).

Tier 1 is a pioneering circular economy business that specialises in IT asset disposal (ITAD), IT refurbishment and the reselling of used IT hardware. Based in Manchester, the company works with corporate clients to safely and securely dispose of their end-of-life IT equipment. It then refurbishes these assets and re-sells them both through its own online channel and via third party IT resellers. Any assets that cannot be resold are broken up for recycling. As well as reducing e-waste, this also provides customers with a compelling alternative to buying new IT equipment, both from a price and sustainability perspective.

Tier 1’s differentiated market position and focus on quality means it is well placed to benefit from the further growth of this sector over the next decade. The company also has a strong social value focus, evident in its exclusive partnership with the charity ComputerAid, which works to broaden access to technology in developing markets, and its programme with the charity Antz Junction, which provides work experience and support to prisoners ‘through the gate’ (for which the company received a Queens Award for Enterprise in 2019).