Barclays reopens revamped Cambridge Eagle Lab for climate tech startups

Barclays' Cambridge Eagle Lab has enough space to accommodate 130 individuals

Barclays has reopened its revamped Cambridge Eagle Lab, a space where high-growth climate tech startups can connect, grow and scale.

Cambridge Eagle Lab has enough space to accommodate 130 individuals, as well as 75% more collaboration areas for meetings, events and networking.

The newly-designed workspace now boasts a 90% reduction in carbon emissions compared to 2018, having undergone a period of retrofitting designed to boost its green credentials.

Key major upgrades to the building include solar panels by Naked Energy; a smart heating, ventilation and air conditioning system powered by renewable energy sources; energy-efficient double-glazed windows with solar control; roof and cavity wall insulation; and water reduction technologies.

Automatic lighting and window-blind controls have also been installed to optimise light levels and quality, while improving overall energy consumption.

The existing vault in the banking hall has even been retained, now repurposed as a media room and podcast studio. Retaining the vault helped reduce construction waste associated with the project.

Nick Stace, Head of Sustainability, Barclays UK, said: “We’re excited to be reopening the doors to our Eagle Lab in Cambridge with a renewed focus as a centre of excellence for climate tech start-ups. We want to play a leading role in supporting climate tech and sustainability-focused businesses, by giving them the tools to help them connect, grow and scale. It was crucial that the retrofit and internal redesign of the building accurately reflected the ethos of the businesses that will use it and we expect it to provide significant energy efficiency improvements, allowing us to take an important step forward in reducing our own operational emissions.

“We know that startups need more than just a space, which is why we’re also supporting businesses through our climate tech accelerator programmes from the Cambridge Eagle Lab. We hope this package of support enables businesses to scale at pace and tackle some of today’s most pressing climate tech challenges.”

Find out more about Cambridge Eagle Lab here: https://labs.uk.barclays/locations/cambridge

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