Blogs

Stories, updates and interviews as we progress towards a smarter transformation in the built environment.

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60 seconds with Ketty

Meet our newest team member - Ketty Lawrence, who will be joining BE-ST over the next 12 months as Associate Director of Stakeholder Engagement. We’ve asked her some quick-fire questions in a '60 Seconds With' spotlight to help get to know her a little better.

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Matthew Clubb: Retrofit, Trust and Local Communities

Matthew Clubb is an Aberdeen-based director of mwclubb, a practice specialising in low-energy architecture and the retrofit of existing buildings. A former oil and gas engineer, Clubb transitioned into architecture after a personal journey into climate science that left him shocked by the severity of the climate crisis.

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Smarter Transformation BE-ST Smarter Transformation BE-ST

Lothian Heat: a regional catalyst for community-owned heat networks

Lothian Heat is a new regional organisation exploring how large-scale heat networks could be delivered differently in the East of Scotland. Its core proposition is straightforward but ambitious: capture waste heat that is currently being thrown away, move it to where demand is highest, and deliver it at the lowest possible cost with community ownership embedded over the long term.

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Smarter Transformation BE-ST Smarter Transformation BE-ST

Building a Circular Scotland: Zero Waste Scotland’s role in embedding circularity in the Built Environment

Construction and demolition produce nearly half of Scotland’s waste, and much of that arises not out of necessity, but due to underuse of reuse opportunities. Zero Waste Scotland is tackling these issues, pushing for a shift from linear “take, make, waste” models to a circular, resource-efficient built environment.

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Crewe Warm & Healthy Homes

In response to the climate emergency, Cheshire East Council commissioned Purcell to lead the retrofit of a series of Grade II listed railway cottages in Crewe. These Victorian homes, constructed between 1848 and 1858 for railway workers, are deeply embedded in the town’s industrial heritage and architectural identity.

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