Green Living Live celebrates innovations in sustainable living

Green Living Live, in partnership with myenergi made its much-anticipated debut at ExCeL London this month, running alongside Grand Designs Live.

The brand-new standalone event was dedicated to bringing innovative and exciting new developments in sustainability to visitors with an unrivalled education, and insight into eco-friendly products and services from companies that put sustainability at the heart of their business.

Welcoming over 76,000 visitors, Green Living Live brought together hundreds of brands and expertise committed to environmentally friendly living, supplying eco building materials, furnishings and systems, as well as transport. The event also celebrated innovation, showcasing fresh ideas, and launching new designs.

Kevin McCloud commented on the launch “Green Living Live has bought together hard-core green businesses all in one place, alongside my Green Heroes and our Green Graduates. Showcasing the brands and products together have given our combined values some real momentum, which at its heart is what it’s all about.”

Talks and panel discussions were hosted in The Eco Theatre and Advice Hub sponsored by myenergi where visitors had the opportunity to gain valuable knowledge and advice first hand from the experts. Talks included ‘Upcycling IKEA’ where designer Max McMurdo joined forces with the furniture giant to refurbish items live on stage; ‘Sustainable Interiors’ saw founder of furniture comparison site ufurnish.com, Deirdre McGettrick offer guidance around furniture decisions; and ‘Passive Design’, with Branca Pegado from Article 25 sharing passive design principles to enable natural heating and cooling in homes.

Kevin’s Green Heroes were a highlight of the event, bringing together the most revolutionary, useful, and eco-friendly gadgets and products on the market. Kevin McCloud selected a showcase of his top heroes from previous shows along with exciting newcomers. Previous Green Hero ecoBirdy were back with their beautiful and functional furniture created from plastic waste. Polywood Innovations were newcomers for 2022, displaying their blended natural fibres and resin to make a replacement for plastic bottles alongside Okoform LTD, a stylish and practical desk with built in heating solutions.

Exhibitors within Green Living Live included myenergi, EDF, Eon, Insul Hub, DFS and Sips Industries. Launching at the show, Kelda Bubble Spa raised a lot of interest from visitors with an innovative air-powered shower technology. Creating large droplets filled with air that fall softly for a luxurious shower, using technology drawn from cutting-edge aerospace and automotive engineering. The ground-breaking design reduces water consumption whilst creating a luxury spa-like experience.

Catnic launched a new concept in building extensions and garden rooms at Green Living Live. The Catnic Matrix is a pre-fabricated panel system that is quickly and easily put together like Lego, onsite, to form an airtight superstructure in days that conforms to the new Part L regulations.

Also at the show was the United Colleges Group, promoting courses at their new Centre of Excellence Skills Hub. Courses by industry experts focus on the green agenda and a wide range of construction and engineering subjects. Their state-of-the-art facilities provide the ideal training ground, exploring air source heat pumps, electric vehicle charging, wall insulation and other crucial technologies that support a more sustainable future.

Elsewhere within Green Living Live, with queues to enter each day, the ModPod Zero Low-Carbon House sponsored by EDF was a hugely popular attraction. Visitors explored how sustainable and innovative technology can reduce energy bills to zero. PV panelling and batteries from Solarwatt showed how to generate, manage and store solar power; a smart hot water system by Mixergy demonstrated hot water technologies to save money and reduce environmental impact; and Showersave showcased a wastewater heat recovery system to save energy. With products available to retrofit within existing homes, attendees were keen to collect advice and see how these products could save serious money.