HEARTH team hosts Kick-off meeting with project partners

Key points for HEARTH from the discussions:

For policymakers, key points included:

• Policy working group - The formation of a policy working group was proposed as a helpful mechanism for co-developing key outputs and ensuring early engagement. This group could facilitate the capture of outputs and data from the HEARTH hub.

• Alignment with overarching net-zero policy - There is a need to connect HEARTH's work with the Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) and broader net-zero objectives. Specific relevance to extreme heat, the Global Cooling Pledge, and the Clean Health and Growth mission were highlighted.

• Aligning outputs and policy timelines - Understanding the key timelines for policy decisions is crucial for HEARTH to deliver helpful outputs at the right time. Working backwards from policy needs to identify valuable research outputs was suggested.

• Awareness of new housing and town development needs - Connect HEARTH to new housing and new towns development needs, particularly at the neighbourhood scale for heat management.

• Accessibility of modelling and data - Ensuring that the modelling outputs are accessible to non-experts in Local Authorities (LAs) and that the data can tie in with existing datasets is important. The data should be able to feed into future work. Different levels of users and their varying data needs should be considered.

• Impact of extreme heat on vulnerable populations - Exploring the impact of extreme heat on vulnerable populations in secure settings and how this can influence policy is a key area of interest.

• Solutions and technology for secure settings - Policymakers are interested in solutions and technologies that fit within secure settings.

• Support for low-income and fuel-poor - Providing impact data and help for low-income and fuel-poor households through retrofitting is desired.

• Using health impacts to tailor communication for adaptive improvement.

For industry and third-sector partners, key points include:

• Industry working group and knowledge exchange - Bringing industry and policy working groups together could foster valuable knowledge exchange.

• Coordination and collaboration - There is a desire for better coordination of solutions and a potential definitive guide or standards to mitigate risks, possibly through collaboration between hubs.

• Practical outputs and tools - Organizations are looking for practical outputs from HEARTH and ways to translate research into actionable tools and frameworks.

• Identification of barriers to action - Identifying and addressing the barriers that prevent organizations from taking action on heat resilience is crucial.

• Holistic consideration of heat and net zero and avoiding unintended impacts:

  • Carbon impact of solutions - Solutions to heat must be assessed for their carbon impact to avoid creating a "vicious cycle".

  • Affordable warmth and retrofitting without causing overheating - Focusing on affordable warmth and identifying retrofitting measures that address both winter and summer needs without worsening overheating.

  • Need for integrated retrofit and advice to address damp, heat, and cold, all of which impact health.

• Engaging industry stakeholders through supply chain - Engaging various parts of the industry, including manufacturing and designers, is seen as important.

• Safety concerns in extreme heat scenarios:

  • Ensuring hospitals are the safest place during emergencies is a priority. The impact on staff visiting patients at home during heatwaves is also a concern.

  • Operational support and advice for healthcare - Providing operational support and advice, such as understanding what temperature projections mean for overheating in hospitals and how to allocate staffing, is desired.

  • Homelessness and heat - Data on homelessness and heat is needed, along with solutions for preparing for summer and extreme heat for those sleeping on the streets and using day/night shelters.

• Evidence for technical solutions - There is uncertainty around technical solutions, and industry wants to see strong evidence.

• Building risk assessment at a large scale - Identifying insightful methods to assess buildings at risk and applying these methods to large datasets, such as stock data, is a key interest.

• Integrating buildings and health - All work on buildings (including improved building regulations) should consider the risk and impact on health, aiming for holistic health outcomes.

• Evidence beyond modelling in design - Moving beyond reliance solely on modelling and incorporating evidence, including qualitative and quantitative data (BPE), in the design and build process is important for addressing health and wellbeing.