BE-ST’s 2024 began with a visit from Humza Yousaf MSP, then First Minister, to announce the Scottish Funding Council's future infrastructure support model for Scotland’s innovation centres, and to officially launch the National Retrofit Centre. Shortly thereafter, it was confirmed that Edinburgh Napier University, as the host institution for BE-ST, was awarded £1.2M in grant funding from the Scottish Government’s Salix Public Sector Heat Decarbonisation Fund, to retrofit the A Lab building on BE-ST’s Innovation Campus.  

This has presented a fantastic opportunity for BE-ST to take on the role of a construction client, to trial and support various innovative approaches to retrofitting buildings of this type, and explore the challenges and the complexities that come with retrofitting a large-scale, multi-use industrial building.

This project began in October 2024 and is being delivered by Clark Contracts, supported by the talented design team John Gilbert Architects, Luths Services, Brown + Wallace, Narro Associates and CDM Scotland.  

We have continued to invest deeply into embedding necessary skills in the industry, recognising this as key to enabling success in the sector. Our Digital Construction Skills programme shared the latest of thermal and surveying equipment with industry partners, educators, and apprentices to raise awareness of how digital equipment can apply to and enhance their jobs. 

As well as training the workforce now, we are trying to teach future generations the value of ultra-high performing buildings through the Low Carbon Learning: Next Gen programme.  

We also launched the BE-ST Educator Programme, a six-month agile leadership course for educators, a retrofit awareness programme for public and third sector in partnership with the Verdancy Group, and secured support for AI Pathway Pro from Ufi’s Voctech Trust. The AI PathwayPro platform will create a comprehensive system for matching competency demands and supplies to aid skills transferability, which is an exciting prospect to look forward to next year. 

In partnership with Class Of Your Own, we hosted over 180 young learners from 6 North Lanarkshire Council High Schools at our Low Carbon Learning: Next Gen Summit. This was the largest COYO eco-classroom event to date. The Provost for North Lanarkshire Council Kenneth Duffy and Councillor Andrew Duffy-Lawson joined us to visit the students and see the programme in action. 

Through the year Next Gen has continued to spread the good word of sustainable construction, working with education partners Academic NL North Lanarkshire Council, DYW Glasgow, University of Strathclyde, Class of Your Own and more, to deeply inspire and teach our young people about working in construction.  

We were delighted to be nominated for The Sustainability Award with North Lanarkshire Council for the programme at the Scottish Public Service Awards 2024. 

From the relaunch of Retrofit Scotland to the invaluable perspectives shared by our inspiring keynotes, BE-ST Fest ‘24 was an unforgettable experience. The conferences were hosted for the first time at Paisley Town Hall, which provided the perfect backdrop for the discussions on retrofit, community regeneration and turning ambition into action.  

Don't worry if you were not able to attend the main conferences this year. We have released the full playlists of the keynote speeches of the Summit here and the International Retrofit Conference here, or our round-up films for Summit film and the International Retrofit Conference film. 

A partnership of NMITE, The University of Edinburgh, ENU and BE-ST produced samples of the UK's first commercially viable wood fibre insulation. Funded by Forestry Commission, the project mixed softwood and hardwood fibres with other wood fibres and binding agents to create the prototype, in order to turn a low value product into a high value one. 

The first ever DIveIN Conference was a great success, providing attendees with the opportunity to ask those difficult questions in a safe space and leave with practical and actionable changes that they can make to improve their organisation's ED&I plan. This year’s theme focused on the experience of ethnic minorities in the sector and we listened to key voices in this space. We also continued to explore ED&I in a new series of the A-Z podcast, accompanied by a round-up of the learnings in each episode on our website. 

The UK trials are accelerating non-domestic retrofit as part of a £1.9 million Innovate UK-funded project. Seven organisations, including BE-ST, are collaborating to test scalable and accessible retrofit approaches across 12 demonstrator sites in the UK. Find out more about the journey so far here. 

Tier 1 Contactors (T1C) tried traversing the Passivhaus space this year and bringing industry along with them, all inside this mysterious box. This project developed a new test bay to learn more about thermal principles and airtightness in practice, to test new processes, products, and methods so that the T1C collaborators, other members of the industry and their supply chain can improve their build-ups and knowledge-base when delivering Passivhaus projects.  

This was a significant milestone to see so many T1Cs working so closely together for a common good. Speaking on this project, our Chair Nicola Barclay shared, “The feedback I had from one of them was not only are they building really good buildings, but the staff are happier because they're focusing on quality. They're working collaboratively as teams and they've got much more pride in their work.“ 

Retrofit Scotland was relaunched at this year's International Retrofit Conference. Delivered by BE-ST, the programme aims to tackle two urgent challenges: reducing carbon emissions and improving the quality of housing across Scotland to make neighbourhoods warmer, healthier, and more energy-efficient. 

In October we capped off our 10th anniversary with an incredible evening with our Board members, Innovation Champions, and BE Changemakers. Reflecting on our journey to date and looking forward to what’s next, the night was filled with connections and collaboration as we continue our mission to accelerate to zero. 

Thank you for being a part of the BE-ST journey. You can reflect on the journey with us in our ten year booklet, and we look forward to welcoming you to BE-ST Fest '24 to push forward positive outcomes for the future of the sector together. 

As we step into 2025, BE-ST looks to continue to deliver on the promise of a wider good that happens when innovation meets collaboration. Here's to the next year of working together towards a net zero carbon future.