At their heart, both entrepreneurship and innovation are about creating and delivering new forms of value to consumers. Whilst the focus has traditionally been on maximizing cost-effectiveness, there is a growing emphasis on doing so whilst also being sensitive to the delivery of social and/or environmental value – often referred to as a ‘triple bottom line’.

Staff

• Dr Iain Cairns
• Professor Sarah Dodd
• Dr Matthew Hannon
• Professor Jillian MacBryde
• Dr Russell Matthews

Research

Matthew Hannon & Iain Cairns

Dr Matthew Hannon’s and Dr Iain Cairns’ research has explored the development of ‘triple-bottom-line’ energy business models that generate economic, social and environmental value. Through their work on the UK Energy Research Centre’s Community Energy Finance project, they have explored the value proposition of community energy business models and the wider market and policy conditions necessary to support their proliferation. Through this work, they developed four in-depth community energy finance case studies.

Matthew Hannon

As Co-Investigator, Dr Matthew Hannon’s work on the UKRI £10m funded EnergyREV consortium has explored how combining smart technology with localised energy solutions can generate wider economic, social and environmental value. In particular, his recent work has characterised the types of smart local energy businesses operating in the UK and investigated the social equity implications of smart, local energy projects.