Makerversity Sustainability Policy

What we do

Makerversity is a pioneering community of over 300 world-leading entrepreneurs, creators and innovators. Member companies work at the intersection of design, engineering and digital practice, developing ground-breaking solutions for the world’s biggest societal challenges, including climate change, health and inequality. Makerversity supports these early-stage teams with specialist prototyping facilities, affordable workspace, and a business support platform.

Makerversity’s ethos is to ensure all creative talent is included in exciting careers. Makerversity offers two free residencies, Makers with a Mission and Under 25s, enabling those at the beginning of their journey, or without the means to participate, to access opportunity. In addition, Makerversity members provide training for young people through innovative learning programmes. Based at Somerset House, London’s working arts centre, Makerversity members are redefining our future.

The Four Pillars of Sustainability

Human

Human sustainability aims to maintain and improve the human capital in society. Investments in the health and education systems, access to services, nutrition, knowledge and skills are all programs under the umbrella of human sustainability. Natural resources and spaces available are limited and there is a need to balance continual growth with improvements to health and achieving economic wellbeing for everyone. In the context of business, an organisation will view itself as a member of society and promote business values that respect human capital. Human sustainability focuses on the importance of anyone directly or indirectly involved in the making of products, or provision of services or broader stakeholders. Communities around the globe may be positively or negatively affected by business activities, or impacted through methods used to source raw materials. Human sustainability encompasses the development of skills and human capacity to support the functions and sustainability of the organisation and to promote the wellbeing of communities and society.

Economic

Economic sustainability aims to maintain the capital intact. If social sustainability focuses on improving social equality, economic sustainability aims to improve the standard of living. In the context of business, it refers to the efficient use of assets to maintain company profitability over time. Critics of this model acknowledge that a great gap in modern accounting practices is not to include the cost of damage to the earth in market prices. A more recent approach to economics acknowledges the limited incorporation of the ecological and social components in this model. New economics is inclusive of natural capital (ecological systems) and social capital (relationships amongst people) and challenges the mantra of capital that continual growth is good and bigger is better, if it risks causing harm to the ecological and human system.

Social

Social sustainability aims to preserve social capital by investing and creating services that constitute the framework of our society. The concept accommodates a larger view of the world in relation to communities, cultures and globalisation. It means to preserve future generations and to acknowledge that what we do can have an impact on others and on the world. Social sustainability focuses on maintaining and improving social quality with concepts such as cohesion, reciprocity and honesty and the importance of relationships amongst people. It can be encouraged and supported by laws, information and shared ideas of equality and rights. Social sustainability incorporates the idea of sustainable development as defined by the United Nations sustainable development goals. The principle of sustainable development addresses social and economic improvement that protects the environment and supports equality, and therefore the economy and society and the ecological system are mutually dependent.

Environmental

Environmental sustainability aims to improve human welfare through the protection of natural capital (e.g. land, air, water, minerals etc.). Initiatives and programs are defined as environmentally sustainable when they ensure that the needs of the population are met without the risk of compromising the needs of future generations. Environmental sustainability places emphasis on how business can achieve positive economic outcomes without doing any harm, in the short- or long-term, to the environment. An environmentally sustainable business seeks to integrate all four sustainability pillars, and to reach this aim each one needs to be treated equally.

Our current approach is to curate a membership community that has sustainability at its core. To utilise, provide and encourage sustainable materials in making, to reduce electricity consumption through technologies, that day to day, consume less power and also monitor waste and recycling levels to ascertain best practices and correct recycling and waste streams.

Makerversity Strategic Goals for Sustainability

Makerversity has committed to incorporating the four pillars and agrees to the following strategic goals in order to achieve our vision of sustainability.

Develop a thorough understanding of the effects on the environment of members’ practices and Makervsity’s workshop output.
Turn Makerversity into a model of excellence by investing in sustainable practice and implementing procedures that negate detrimental environmental impact.
Use public programming events and training opportunities to engage and motivate the Makerversity community in sustainable practices.
Encourage, connect and magnify the Makerversity community’s creativity, innovation and environmental stewardship.
Inspire and engage the public around environmental sustainability through cultural programmes and events.
Develop, test, and disseminate new environmentally friendly working and making ideals.

The Three Main Principles of Sustainability;

Reduce
Reuse
Recycle

These are in order of importance regarding the impact on the environment and our efficacy of promoting sustainability.

Reduce use of environmentally damaging materials in the workshops and members making; by providing materials that are either environmentally friendly, in regards to the making process, or encourage members use of environmentally sound materials.

Reuse materials and machinery in innovative ways for the benefit of the making community whilst diverting potential waste from landfill or recycling streams.

Recycle materials where possible as a last resort to appropriate recycling streams to be made into something new or be repurposed in a different way.

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