Spotlight on: Shade the UK & Love Design Studio
Get to know Andy Love, founder of Shade the UK and Love Design Studio!
I'm Andy Love, the founder of Shade the UK and Love Design Studio. I have worked as a sustainability consultant in the world of architecture and engineering for about 12 years now.
What problem is Shade the UK seeking to address and how?
Shade the UK is a non-profit aiming to raise awareness of issues related to climate change and the vulnerable, influencing change in the built environment and public spaces. The Shade the UK cause (or STUK) will look for opportunities to invest more in improving the environment and shade in public spaces and fund retrofit projects to provide external shade and other passive cooling strategies to existing buildings.
Focus will be on building a network/alliance with communities, the public and designers to help shape our cities so they are more inclusive and responsive to diverse needs when it comes to climate adaptation.
What is your biggest achievement to date?
We are currently in our infancy but we have started to build a network of university researchers, government officials and other climate change related companies to agree to our model. We are looking at being provided grants, funding, and private investment to help launch our company to then help fund real-life projects and raise awareness. Focus will be on improving social housing, parks, schools, care homes and hospitals.
How did you come to start this business? What has it taken you so far?
During my time as a Sustainability Consultant, I have noticed that the UK is far too focused on new build developments rather than the existing building stock when it comes to creating net zero carbon buildings and making sure they are thermally comfortable for future weather. Love Design Studio is all about helping design teams within the built environment create sustainable spaces and buildings; working mostly on new builds but we also work on improving existing buildings - however, there is not much by way of investment in improving the resilience of the existing building stock.
The construction sector accounts for 40% of the energy consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. Today, roughly 75% of the EU building stock is energy inefficient and most of the properties that our most vulnerable own/live/work/study in are not ready for the increased temperatures that will be felt from Climate Change. We need to address those issues.
What are you working on at the moment? Any challenges or asks for our community?
We have managed to get funding to set out our brand to start with our social media channels. The next steps are to grow our network following and to raise funding. The challenges for receiving grant funding are that we are relatively new and it is quite competitive to get funding.
What advice do you have for anyone looking to set up their own business?
Preparation is key and do something you are passionate about so that you stay motivated.
How do you switch off from running a business?
Chess / drawing / football
Where can we find out more about the businesses?
Check out our Instagram and websites by clicking on the logos!
Thanks Andy!