Glenn Manoff

What makes innovations work in Scotland? Impact, vision, community & ecosystem. Yesterday at the #makeyourinnovationswork podcast, I hosted Evelyn McDonald, CEO of the Scottish EDGE and a person of enormous energy who ignites the ideas of others. Key insight on how to nurture ideas within ecosystems, how social enterprises can fundraise for the sake of innovations and what makes Scotland a powerful growth spo with the UK. Social Entrepreneurship as a business model to innovate by design.  "I have to keep innovating as you do in any business because you need to keep innovating to keep your supporters engaged, to keep your stakeholders engaged, to keep people you know continuing to pay you to do what you do," says Evelen. She and her Team regularly walk in entrepreneurs' shoes when you need to adjust to the market on a regular basis and need to find a problem your customers willingly pay for. Innovate as you go. Since Scottish EDGE was launched more than 10 years ago, they have reinvented fundraising methods to keep their funding fund. Though it is the biggest business competition in the UK, crises and markets happen. Alumni pledges (1% of what they personally make on exit back to Scottish Edge), high net Scottish entrepreneurs support, sponsorship, etc., are used to secure Scottish EDGE work. Powerful community of alumni. One of the distinguishing features of the Scottish EDGE is that they support young and inexperienced entrepreneurs with 15000£ each per round. Once a part of Young EDGE, Amiqus has become the UK's leading compliance and onboarding platform, which is recommended for use by the UK government and is called "Fantastic Future Fifty 2024" by Tech Nation. It started from a spark. Running a business may be a lonely place to be. Though Teams, mentors, and partners are critical to demonstrating that your ideas mean something to others, the alumni community helps on the journey itself with information, advice, a network, and support. People are rushing from other countries to return to where their business came from. Impact matters. The last "Beyond the Return" report by Tech Nation, European Women in VC, and Founders Forum Group has shown - 88% of the VCs use an impact investing framework or tool to guide their investment decisions, with Western Europe being one of the most impact-oriented. Even more, founders are looking for impactful projects to work on, and it's pretty crucial for GenZ and younger generations to stand for some cause. The circular economy is one of the examples of how business models can become both scalable and impactful. So, there is room for another model as well. Impact helps to inspire critical stakeholders when you are an early-stage enterprise; it helps to spread the word and bring the right people on board. Feel free to come into round 24 with a 1.5 million pound prize pot starting the 14th of August. Make your #innovations work! #strategy #growth The link to the podcast is in comments

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An interesting article on the hyper-local challenges. I believe a public social infrastructure is what will be required to accelerate this movement, an idea we are pulling at with our Fabrik platform at immedia. https://lnkd.in/de4ne6mC

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We are less than a week away from #ConnectedBritain and I'm delighted to be chairing a session on the role of partnerships in tackling digital exclusion. Shockingly, despite good mobile & full-fibre coverage and device penetration & adoption, the UK is still struggling with digital inclusivity. The 2023 Consumer Digital Index recorded 7.5 million people, or 18% of UK adults, as lacking the essential digital skills that are needed for the workplace, and the level of digital understanding (which is much more than being able to stream TikTok videos) drops even further when you survey only young people. We've a fabulous panel with experience from across the digital inclusion jigsaw of infrastructure, access, skills and service delivery to help us tackle the issue. Tim Stranack Rajiv Datta Ndidi Okezie Emma Weston OBE Penny Syddall FCIPR . They will be debating whether we need a fundamental systemic change in the way we address digital inclusion and how partnerships are key to achieving successful results. With digital inclusion recognised as critical by the new Government and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, we hope to share some practical ideas and call for digital inclusion to be embedded into cross-departmental delivery. Join us from 1515 on 11th September on the Connected Society Stage. Total Telecom Chris Bryant Peter Kyle Department for Business and Trade HM Treasury #digitalinclusion #connectedsocieties #solvingchallenges

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Breaking news on low carbon and the Labour Manifesto …… Key strategies include: - Introducing a carbon border adjustment mechanism to protect British industries and meet climate objectives. - Ensuring the institutional framework supports reaching net zero and meeting carbon budgets. - Mandating UK-regulated financial institutions to implement credible transition plans aligning with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement. ### Heat Pumps and Low Carbon Heating Support the widespread adoption of low-carbon heating solutions, including heat pumps, through: - Offering grants and low-interest loans under the Warm Homes Plan to support the installation of heat pumps and other low-carbon heating systems. - Ensuring private rented sector homes meet minimum energy efficiency standards by 2030. ### Solar PV To expand solar power usage, Labour intends to: - Triple solar power capacity by 2030 as part of the mission to deliver clean power. - Provide support through the Warm Homes Plan for solar panel installations. - Deploy more distributed production capacity through the Local Power Plan, partnering with local authorities and cooperatives for community-based solar projects. ### Insulating Homes Labour's manifesto highlights a significant focus on improving energy efficiency in homes through: - Investing an extra £6.6 billion over the next parliament to upgrade five million homes, aiming to reduce bills and fuel poverty. - Providing grants and low-interest loans for insulation and other improvements. - Working with combined authorities, local, and devolved governments to roll out the Warm Homes Plan. - Ensuring that no one will be forced to replace their boiler as a result of these plans. ### Details on the Warm Homes Plan The Warm Homes Plan is a cornerstone of Labour's strategy to improve energy efficiency in homes. Key elements include: - Offering grants and low-interest loans to support investment in insulation, solar panels, batteries, and low-carbon heating solutions. - Partnering with combined authorities, local and devolved governments for a comprehensive rollout. - Collaborating with the private sector, including banks and building societies, to provide additional private finance to accelerate home upgrades and low-carbon heating. - Ensuring homes in the private rented sector meet minimum energy efficiency standards by 2030, which will save renters hundreds of pounds per year. - Guaranteeing that no one will be forced to remove their boiler as part of these improvements. ### Training on Low Carbon Technologies To support the transition to a green economy, Labour plans to: - Establish Skills England to bring together businesses, training providers, and unions with national and local government to ensure a highly trained workforce for the Industrial Strategy. - Devolve adult skills funding to Combined Authorities - Reform the Apprenticeships Levy to create a flexible Growth and Skills Levy. GTEC Training

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Taking #ESG commitments to new heights: Zip World UK's #BCorp journey. Featured in #Wales Insider Media this week, I discuss how our portfolio company Zip World achieved its recent B Corp certification and how we help the management teams we back to grow sustainably. Read article - https://lnkd.in/eWGcYJku #TrustedwithAmbition #ESGjourneys #privateequity #businessgrowth

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Are there any public sector PMs, Service Designers or Delivery folks within my network? Keen to get a coffee ☕ Photo: the view from techUK conference earlier this week. Brilliant day with lots of insight from Government Digital Service, Ministry of Justice UK, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and many more. #publicsector #productmanagement #servicedesign

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What Paul Fehlinger said! Investors and policymakers are the two great magnetic poles when it comes to how tech companies impact our lives. And yet they are oceans apart. This needs to change. Right now, the frantic pace of AI development, the structure of the stack, the increasingly closed nature of the market and its disjointed global impact are all red flags that we need to re-examine how these two influential communities communicate - and potentially pull in the same direction. We are hoping to reignite this conversation in the coming months.

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Being on the front line telling stories of sustainable innovation is exciting but it’s such a new concept for so many firms and mistakes are made. Take innovation in the carbon markets for example. Due to the action of a few, sellers are under intense scrutiny, whilst well meaning companies have been caught out. Understanding the reputational opportunities and also the risks is critical in planning an effective PR strategy. Last week, my Wilful Co-Founder Narda Shirley was on a fascinating panel to discuss just that - how do you prepare, respond and recover when things go wrong. #PR #CrisisCommunications #Carbon

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With HackTrends we're on a mission (every.single.week) to break down an emerging Trend in Impact. And this week was no exception. We cover how startups are leveraging AI for Nature Restoration 🌳 Why? Companies and their investors are realising that the biodiversity crisis is as grave as the climate crisis, and that they need to pay attention to their impact. 🤔 So how can emerging technologies help verify impact on nature? Startups are using AI to crunch data sets and determine patterns over distances and over time. Its value, however, is built on enabling technologies like remote sensing and satellite imaging. Advances in all of these tech sets, across hardware and software, are inspiring startups to create tools that help prove nature’s value. Technologies include: 🔉 Bioacoustic monitoring technologies to track sounds over time as a proxy for biodiversity 🛰️ Satellite imagery to track deforestation rates, spot pollution hotspots, or observe shifting climate patterns. 📡 Lidar-based remote sensing using lasers to bounce off a landmass — say, a mountain chain — and generate 3D maps. 👀 The Who; There are 20+ companies globally leveraging AI for nature including: 🇬🇧 Pivotal Future who are incentivising the regeneration of biodiversity at scale by melding data from satellite imagery, Lidar/remote sensing, bioacoustics, and good old conservation data. 🇺🇸 Albedo who use an an integrated satellite and satellite-imaging company focused on Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) trajectories at the threshold of space, much nearer to the earth than existing satellites.   Check out more companies in the space: AgriSound Albedo Albo Climate apic.ai biometrio.earth BioPhonia Carbon Rewild Chloris Geospatial Conservation AI Earth Blox Gentian Meteory Pivotal Future Rainforest Connection (RFCx) Spoor Stream Ocean Synature AG TransparenC Wilder Sensing Wildlife Acoustics, Inc. Wildlife Insights Wild Me To discover the full report with all the opportunities, challenges, case studies and actionable insights, head this way: https://lnkd.in/eWXrDkYg

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You know when investing in nature is becoming a thing when some of the most successful finance entrepreneurs and some of the best academic minds come together to discuss how to unlock $1 trillion of investment into nature.   Thank you Kamiar Mohaddes for hosting, and David Craig for sharing your insights. Very grateful to have been part of this amazing forum. 🌿💼 Let's keep the momentum going! #naturefinance #TNFD #natureinvestment #naturalcapital #naturepositive #naturebasedsolutions, #biodiversity, #regenerativeagriculture #sustainablefarming

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The case for GB Cloud The AI revolution will need massive computing capacity to enable it. In this paper Demos ‘ Elizabeth Seger with UKDayOne calls for the next government to invest in sovereign compute - GB Cloud - to develop cost effect and resilient compute. GB Cloud should be a public interest company offering discounted access to the NHS, public services and researchers and start-ups and could have parliamentary oversight and public consultation to ensure it is a trusted resource for the nation. The next will have to pick some targets to stimulate growth. This is a good bet. https://lnkd.in/eg28dipv

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This is a great podcast. If you are interested in the climate tech / energy transition conversation and all its nuances, technicalities, policy, regulation and everything in between, add this to your list. My ENODA Ltd colleague, Anna Bazley, talks to host, Richard Delevan, about energy infrastructure and grid resilience, alongside an esteemed panel of guests. Wicked Problems - Climate Tech Conversations #podcast #enoda #gridtech #energytransition #energyinfrastrucute

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It’s not always easy to get good climate-related coverage in the Telegraph. But I've just spotted an example of brilliant climate storytelling in that very publication. So… why does it work?  📲 It’s about a solution. Hope-filled stories are good at engaging audiences (they’re less scary, right!) and media outlets are inevitably driven to create content that will be read and shared. This one is about a very tangible text message warning system. 🗺 It’s about particular places. Like Kilifi in Kenya. It’s hard for any of us to grapple with the implications of our changing planet in the abstract. This piece makes it specific, meaning we have more of a chance of connecting with it. 💚 It opens with an engaging human story. A farmer, Amos Kazungu, is pictured and speaks directly to us about what he has experienced. “There was so little rain that the river dried up...” 📢 It includes a call to action: "Only a fraction of Kenya’s farmers receive such support" and points to the need for governments to step up. The UK government was pushed to respond. ☀ It’s not obviously about ‘climate change’ which (wrongly, so wrongly) has become politicised, and scares some editors and alienates some readers. This story is ostensibly about drought. But it does talk about adaptation to increasingly extreme weather. So it is about climate change - but by the back door. These are my thoughts. Let me know yours! (I don't know the team behind the story - but hats off to all of them, not least journalist Peter Yeung and farmers Amos Kuzungu and Wario Hasama)

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Did you know increasing the percentage of women-led businesses by just 10% would #addbillions to the economy! The #WESManifesto, launched by Women's Enterprise Scotland, outlines 5 priority areas to accelerate growth and unlock the opportunity that women’s enterprise represents. Visit https://lnkd.in/eNmtGUiN to find out more. These asks are consistent with international asks of the #G20 by W20 UK which I co-chair with Barbara Cleary. It is obvious that investing more in female entrepreneurs will help #economicgrowth so the time is now!

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From last Friday’s gathering at the Climate Reality UK open event where the Climate Reality Leaders in the room took the opportunity to show support for the Climate and Nature Bill - a plan for a new UK law that addresses the full extent of the climate and nature crisis in line with the most up-to-date science. The Bill is the only proposed legislation before the UK Parliament that ensures a comprehensive and joined-up approach to the emergency. The CAN Bill makes sure the UK does its bit to keep global heating down to 1.5°C, which gives us a chance to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. While the existing Environment Act only offers to halt the decline of nature by 2030, the CAN Bill commits to reversing the destruction of nature by 2030. Weaning ourselves off fossil fuels means big changes. The Bill calls for a climate and nature assembly to help Government and Parliament develop an emergency strategy on the way forward. Written by scientists, experts and campaigners, it was first introduced in Parliament by Caroline Lucas MP in September 2020, and now has the backing of 216 MPs and Peers representing all major political parties. To borrow a phrase by President Obama, “Yes, we CAN!” - https://lnkd.in/eWBiD-VG #climate #climateandnaturebill #CAN #nature #law #presidentobama

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In an exclusive with Danielle Rossingh, Impact-Investor.com., Ninety One's Emerging Market Fixed Income team has announced the launch of the Sovereign Biodiversity Index to assess how governments are impacting nature and biodiversity. Portfolio Manager Peter Eerdmans said: “As #sovereigndebt investors, we need a practical way to assess how governments impact nature and the risks stemming from #biodiversity loss, as they can significantly influence economic performance and consequently a nation’s ability to service its debt. This is particularly key for investors in #emergingmarkets, where economies often rely heavily on nature, partly because of the relative importance of the agricultural sector.” https://nty.one/3YpMYAu #fixedincome #nature #deforestation #emergingmarketdebt #sovereigndebtinvestor #institutionalinvestor #naturefinance #climateinvesting #transition #netzero #netzerotransition #impactinvesting #sovereign #SDG #ecosystem

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It’s been a while since I’ve offered reflections on 🇬🇧 Government policy here. Today’s publication of a new #IndustrialStrategy prompted me to write a few thoughts - as I’ve been here before a few times over the past 20-plus years. Kudos to ministers, and to Jonathan Reynolds MP in particular, for getting a considered document out for business input at such pace. Yet there are three areas to watch carefully to ensure this Industrial Strategy doesn’t suffer the same fate as its many predecessors: ‘here today, gone tomorrow’. 1/ Focus. 8 huge priority sectors; 8 sets of cross-cutting enablers; loads of other related strategies - with further lobbying ahead from business, it could all get ‘too big’ and too general. We’ve seen that happen before. Genuine focus is critical. 2/ Execution. The Achilles heel of all UK Governments, which are excellent at writing strategies, and not so excellent at seeing them through. Business engagement won’t be enough; Government must organise itself to deliver both quick wins and long-term systemic change. Civil servants, resources, investors, business and communities all working together. 3/ Commitment. Iron discipline will be required - and so will cross-party acceptance - to ensure we see real-world impact. Events and petty politicking must not be allowed to blow progress off course, as they have in the past. Many businesses will be giving HM Treasury and Department for Business and Trade their input over the coming weeks, and I hope that input gets the genuine consideration it deserves. I also hope ministers will heed the lessons of the past - and ensure that the final product next Spring delivers on its 10-year promise in 2035.

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So our exciting journey at Dods Political Intelligence continues. We're launching our new integrated platform and building AI tools to get more relevant information and insights to our customers. But our strength has always been human intelligence. Now you can get access to our exceptional team of sector experts across the UK and the EU to provide you with actionable insights, including state of play reports, stakeholder mapping, policy analysis and campaign advisory. Impartial, authoritative and impactful. Based on almost 200 years experience in following policy making. Who can beat that? #politics #policymaking #publicaffairs #excellence

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