Barclays has relaunched its Cambridge Eagle Lab with a renewed focus on “helping high growth climate tech startups to connect, grow and scale.”
The site has undergone a significant retrofit, “with the goal of reducing its carbon emissions by 90 per cent compared to 2018.”
The newly-designed space features “increased desk capacity for up to 130 people, and a 75 per cent increase in collaboration space allowing a more flexible layout for meetings, events, and networking.”
It also features a dedicated area “to showcase the climate tech technologies and businesses that Barclays is supporting through its partnerships, Unreasonable Impact ventures, Bridge programmes, and Sustainable Impact Capital investments.”
Barclays is uniquely positioned to “help clients on the path to net zero and is focused on investing in the climate tech needed by society to transition, while also generating economic growth and creating a new wave of green jobs.”
The relaunch follows Barclays’ recent partnership announcement “with Carbon 13, a Cambridge-based venture builder, to provide over 100 startups with support and mentoring to help tackle the challenges the globe faces on the road to net zero.”
The International Energy Agency has estimated “that 35 per cent of emission reductions needed by 2050 will come from new technologies currently not on the market.”
Support for new businesses is therefore vital, and climate tech businesses “can also get involved in a number of dedicated pre-seed and bridge programs,” run by Barclays and leading industry partners:
- Carbon 13 Venture Launchpad: a virtual 20-week virtual program to help pre-seed and early-stage businesses launch scalable solutions to climate related issues.
Bridge programs: A series of industry bridge programmes, in collaboration with Codebase, designed to connect leading corporations with startups to share knowledge and strategic thinking: - Sustainability Bridge Program: funded by Government (as part of the Digital Growth Grant) and focused on sustainable transport
- Energy Transition Programme: Funded by Opportunity North East and focused on how innovation can help deliver the Energy Transition
- Rise Start-Up Academy: a 10-week digital-first programme to equip early-stage founders with skills and tools to help them get fit for market. A dedicated Climate FinTech edition will launch later this year to support companies developing exciting solutions to help the world transition to net zero.
A retrofit to reduce carbon footprint
As part of Barclays’ ambition to achieve net zero operations “by 2050, the Cambridge Eagle Lab has been retrofitted to improve energy efficiency, in partnership with companies from its Sustainable Impact Capital portfolio and Unreasonable Impact programme, such as SaveMoneyCutCarbon, who consulted on the plans.”
Reaching net zero means finding low-carbon ways of doing necessary activities – “including electricity generation, transport, and heating.”
The project will be reviewed by internationally recognised sustainability accreditation body Planet Mark to assess The Eagle Lab’s carbon footprint.
As covered, Barclays is a British universal bank.
They are diversified by business, “by different types of customer and client, and geography. Our businesses include consumer banking and payments operations around the world, as well as a top-tier, full service, global corporate and investment bank, all of which are supported by our service company which provides technology, operations and functional services across the Group.”
For more details, check here.
