SOG’s Heath Park vision features in Government’s new Global Investment Atlas of Green Innovation Projects

Heath Park, a Liverpool City Region ‘Beacon Project’, has been selected as one of 35 ‘Green Innovation’ schemes to be showcased to top international investors when the UK host a one-day Global Investment Summit (GIS) in London today (Tuesday, October 19^th).

Runcorn: October 19^th, 2021: The world’s leading businesses and investors have been invited to the UK’s first GIS which is being hosted by HM The Queen and the Prime Minister and supported by other members of the Royal Family. The summit intends to show how the UK can shape the future of green investment and comes in the lead up to next month’s Cop26 United Nations Conference by making the case for global investment in UK companies.

The Government is launching its new Global Investment Atlas at GIS which is the UK’s shop window to green innovation projects accredited by the Government to encourage inward investment.  Heath Park is the only project from Liverpool City Region represented in the Atlas and is one of only two from the entire Northwest and Wales.

Heath Park is the vision of SOG Group, owner and operator of The Heath Business and Technical Park in Runcorn, Cheshire, which has produced an innovative scheme to build on the existing business park’s success.  Through repurposing existing buildings alongside new developments to create a net zero carbon environment powered by renewable energy, SOG intends to create a unique community where people can live, work and play, and which meets the challenges of Climate Change.

Steve Rotheram, Liverpool City Region Mayor who is attending GIS, said: “To tackle the threat of climate change, our planet needs a green industrial revolution, and the Liverpool City Region has the potential to be one of its global leaders. Projects like Heath Park are a fantastic example of the overlap between green innovation and environmental regeneration that I am championing across our region.”

SOG Group owner John Lewis MBE said:  “Our vision is the culmination of more than two years of methodical research and effort that has been validated every step of the way by a team of experts, including leading academics from Liverpool and Lancaster Universities. Heath Park stemmed from SOG sponsoring a global competition run by RIBA, the Royal Institute of British Architects, which attracted over 50 entries from architects, forward thinkers and designers from around the world. It generated incredible ideas on the vision of future living with a raft of fascinating propositions on future trends in employment, housing, leisure, community, energy consumption and sustainable food supplies.        

“Local food production and Vertical Farming, a rapidly expanding industry across the globe, were identified as vitally important elements for Heath Park and as a result we have just undertaken a world-first pilot study to create a model for a Vertical Farm totally powered by renewable energy. This ground-breaking process will revolutionise Vertical Farming methods in the future by absorbing CO2 whilst producing healthy food.”

Mr Lewis added: “Heath Park embodies the Government’s aims for urban regeneration in the UK to meet the growing demand for much needed housing. By repurposing our existing buildings on a brownfield site, we will drastically reduce the carbon emitted if we were to demolish them, meeting yet another important Government target.  We have a unique project that will massively benefit the environment. Inclusion in the Government’s Global Investment Atlas provides us with an excellent platform to attract the international investment required to turn this exciting vision into reality.”

Mark Horler, Chairman of UK AgriTech, said: “The vertical farm proposed at Heath Park is of significant importance to the rapidly expanding UK vertical farming sector. The ground- breaking Heath Park urban regeneration project integrates 100% renewable energy with highly impressive ESG credentials. This demonstrates how the inclusion of a large-scale vertical farm goes hand in hand with real estate to create a truly live, work and play environment for the future, and that will constantly sequester carbon. Investing in Heath Park’s vertical farm project will pivot the North-West to be a leader in fully integrated zero carbon real estate regeneration.”

For more information on ‘Heath Park’ visit: www.heathpark-uk.com

For more on SOG and The Heath Business and Technical Park visit: www.theheath.com

Issued on behalf of SOG Group

Media contact: Paul Smith Associates (PSA) +44 (0) 7771 623 007

E-mail: paul@paulsmithassociates.co.uk