From 'old school' to AI – five hot topics from London's impact conference

The Sustainability Expo in London took place on February 5th and 6th as part of the larger TechEx Global event at Kensington Olympia.

Impact Loop was there, and after fully digesting the two days of panel discussions and presentations, we've compiled a summary of the most relevant highlights for impact startups and investors across Europe.

1. Microsoft's climate fund: an opportunity?

One of the biggest names represented at the Expo was Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, a $1 billion (€970m) initiative that has so far invested directly in around 40 companies and around 20 fund managers aiming to fight climate change.

The fund’s director James Lockyer took part in a panel discussion on how to use technology to drive sustainable business, and outlined three areas where he is especially keen to add new investments.

“We are predominantly prioritising energy systems, industrial supply chains and natural systems,” Lockyer said.

Interesting technologies around energy systems include those that help distribute energy resources more efficiently, while the interest on the industrial side centres around low-carbon steel and concrete solutions and carbon removals, Lockyer said.

When it comes to natural systems, he mentioned “really cool” soil sensor technologies and enhanced rock weathering for carbon capture.

Lockyer also outlined the main ways he thinks generative AI will be able to help climate tech companies going forward.

“We see three main opportunities,” he said. “One is how AI is going to continue to help monitor, predict and optimise complex data. The second one would be around helping to accelerate the development of sustainability focused solutions. And we’re seeing that today. And the third one is about empowering people to adopt AI and to help them become more productive. So we see those three areas being really important.”

2. AI is 'great' for climate tech

Lockyer was far from the only person who addressed AI. It was, unsurprisingly, one of the main talking points of the Expo.

It’s clear that companies both large and small are still coming to grips with how, exactly, they should use artificial intelligence to boost sustainability.

One thing seemed clear, though: Not using AI is not an option anymore. Especially if you’re a startup looking for investment.

Catherine Wright, director of corporate finance at HSBC Innovation Banking – which offers debt financing for startups from early stage to Series D – said climate tech founders are much more likely to attract interest from investors if they have already embedded AI into their business.

“There’s a great opportunity for these climate tech businesses,” Wright said. “We’ve seen a lot of companies come through on the early-stage side of things, and it’s almost like a pyramid, where you have a huge funnel at the bottom of a lot of startups that are all trying to create amazing technologies. But not all of them make it, unfortunately. That’s just the reality. So I think developing AI in a climate tech business is very, very important. We’ve seen much more investment going to companies that are doing this, versus climate-tech hardware that are not integrating any AI in their operations.”

3. Better sustainability reporting is needed

Do you have a solution for how to make sustainability reporting easier?

If so, you could have the basis for a successful startup.

Another major talking point was the challenge organisations face in compiling accurate and efficient reports to meet various regulatory and stakeholder demands—ranging from the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) criteria to UN sustainability goals and double materiality assessments (which require companies to report both their impact on the environment and how sustainability issues affect their financial performance).

“One of the things we speak to sustainability people about all the time is, [they say] ‘I just spend all my time with reporting and trying to keep up,’” said George Wade, the co-founder and CCO of Zevero, a startup that has created a platform for managing carbon accounting with the help of AI.

Helping those sustainability officers who are drowning in paperwork seems to be an increasing focus for founders.

The conference highlighted several other startups that already use AI to help improve sustainability. These include Resonate AI – which gives companies a quality score on their report in areas like clarity, consistency, transparency and comprehensibility – and Briink, which has developed a model that collects and summarises ESG data from documents and websites.

4. Sometimes 'old school' beats new tech

Finding ways to be more sustainable isn’t only about utilising the latest tech. Sometimes going old-school can be the answer.

British brewery Fuller’s, which operates more than 380 pubs and hotels, found that the best way to cut its emission related to beef production was to team up with a cooperative of regenerative farmers.

“The best way of explaining regenerative farming is essentially going back to the old ways of farming,” Ollie Rosevear, director of sustainability for Fuller’s told the expo. “So it’s removing the fertilisers, it’s going towards more robust beef breeds who can stay out in the fields longer, it’s thinking about on-site emissions.”

Rosevear said regenerative beef produces 50 percent lower emissions than normal British beef.

“So it’s a significant drop. But the really nice thing about it is that it re-connects us with our farmers,” he said. “And the customer feedback is phenomenal as well. The beef tastes amazing, it looks amazing, and the chefs love it. So it’s a win-win for us, but it also has a massive reduction in terms of our emissions.”

5. Battery-driven generators are in demand

What do music festivals and construction sites have in common?

They could soon be powered by batteries rather than generators.

A major music festival can have hundreds of diesel generators on the site, but AEG Europe – which runs live music and sports events and operates big venues like the O2 Arena in London – is aiming to change that.

“We’re investigating battery power and ways that we can get rid of generators across our entire business, so we can just rely on super high-end batteries that can charge off the grid,” Sam Booth, AEG Europe’s director of sustainability told the conference. “[This] would improve the festival experience in so many ways. It improves air quality for the fans, and it improves sound because you don’t have those generator noises going on around the stage.”

It could also be good news for battery makers. Especially since diesel generators are used on many other types of sites.

"Once we get that right, you can then extrapolate that out and take it to construction sites for instance,” Booth said. “And that really does change the game."