Project Notch looks to accelerate the adoption of Community Energy Systems (CES). CES is a different way of generating and supplying heat and electricity to homes and commercial buildings - locally produced energy is used locally with minimal or no use of the national grid. The benefits are reduced cost and more efficient use of distributed renewables to reduce the overall carbon emissions from the energy system. Most of the necessary technologies are available but they are too expensive for consumers to invest in themselves and the business model is not in place that shows companies how they will make a return, so they dont invest. Project Notch starts with a blank sheet of paper: a new housing development in Nottingham’s Trent Basin. It brings together all the companies involved in the energy supply chain with the potential buyers of up to 120 homes on site. Involving heat and electricity the aim is to operate independent of the gas and electric grids. Using novel consumer engagement tools and a focus on business model development the consortium will develop and test business model templates that could be used by any developers of large scale housing projects.

Carbon Co-op are leading a partnership of creative digital design companies in the development of a whole house retrofit design and assessment web tool. Creating new tools to assist in the implementation of large scale home energy efficiency measures is a huge challenge but one that could unlock a significant new market for the construction industry in the UK. Companies from the GM cluster are among the most innovative in the country trailblazing work in architecture, design, open source web development and householder engagement. The partnership currently has a set of tools, products and processes at a experimentation stage. Investment from TSB would allow these tools to be integrated and automated with increasing standarisation of information management and data transfer to reduce costs and increase capacity.

Programming assistance and advice to develop a web-based tool to administer and share assessments for Igloo Regeneration Ltd's 'footprint' sustainable investment policy. This aims to improve workflow and communication, maximising the impact of our assessments and thereby the sustainability of Igloo’s (and their partners) built developments. This project will also be a practical opportunity for us to learn more about advanced information management use techniques, which can be used to support the full range of our work in sustainability in the built environment.