For our last podcast of the season we are in conversation with two beacons of hope. We talk to Professor Professor Richard Templer, who led the climate innovation centre at Imperial College and went on to found Undaunted in partnership with the Royal Institution, looking back over his career and the huge impact he has had on students, businesses and start ups with Tom Robinson, CEO of Adaptavate.

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Richard Templer is a co-founder of Undaunted, probably the world’s longest running accelerator for innovations to tackle climate change. Undaunted is the final name for the climate innovation support programmes that began with the Climate-KIC (2010-19), which Richard also co-founded, and then became the Centre for Climate Change Innovation (2020-2023). These programmes have supported all forms of innovation from education to policy and research to business creation. The new business accelerator has resulted in support for over 160 start-ups since 2012. Of the 160 start-ups who join this programme (the Greenhouse) 82% go on to raise significant funds. In fact they have raised over $1bn, are to be found in more than 30 countries around the world, and are making positive impacts on climate, both reducing emissions and enabling adaptation to global heating.

In tandem with this work Richard is a member of the London Sustainable Development Commission, where he has led advisory work for the Mayor on the development of London as a global climate innovation hub.

He also advises climate tech investors and the national bodies in Germany and Denmark in their decision making for funding climate innovation.

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Tom began his working life as an on-site builder and plasterer before studying for a Masters in Sustainable Architecture at the Centre for Alternative Technology. It was here that Tom developed what is now known as ‘Breathaboard’ and from this he was encouraged to apply for an entrepreneur competition, winning him a place on the Climate Kic accelerator programme at Imperial College London. These experiences gave Tom the tools to go from on-site builder to company builder, and Adaptavate was born.

Since then, Tom has won a number of entrepreneurship awards throughout Europe and has built Adaptavate into a successful business run by a game-changing team of talented individuals. As the founder, Tom’s focus is on growing the business and consolidating key strategic partnerships that strengthen Adaptavate’s ambitious strategy of being the world’s leading carbon negative building product developer.