The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) has launched the Water Living Lab for Greater Cambridge, bringing together business, local government, academia and innovators to test practical solutions to water scarcity, flooding, and pressure on the natural environment.
The Water Living Lab was launched at Churchill College on 12 October, against a backdrop of growing pressure on Greater Cambridge’s water system from economic and population growth, climate change and the need to restore depleted natural systems.
The initiative aims to create a connected network of real-world testbed sites across Greater Cambridge, where organisations can develop, test and evaluate approaches to water management, generate shared evidence about what works, and accelerate successful solutions.
It will explore solutions spanning water efficiency and demand reduction, water reuse, nature-based and sustainable drainage solutions, and smart and decentralised infrastructure, with the longer-term aim of demonstrating approaches that can be replicated beyond individual sites.
Water is an economic as well as an environmental challenge
Giving the keynote address, Tony Juniper CBE, Chair of Natural England, set out three interconnected water challenges facing the nation, and this region in particular: too little water, too much water and polluted water.
He highlighted how drought, groundwater depletion and pollution are already affecting the East of England and its natural environment, including its rare chalk streams. At the same time, Greater Cambridge has significant ambitions for new homes and economic development, while climate change is expected to increase the challenge of managing both drought and flooding.
Water therefore needs to be considered not only as an environmental issue, Juniper argued, but as an important factor in the region’s future economic resilience.
While greater efficiency, reduced leakage and new reservoir capacity all have a role to play, he emphasised the need to go further, including restoring natural systems that can retain, clean and replenish water.
Examples highlighted included wetlands, tree planting and nature-based approaches to flood management, as well as the restoration at Logan’s Meadow in Cambridge, illustrating how interventions can support water management while creating benefits for nature.
Bringing different parts of the water system together
A panel chaired by James Cole, CISL’s Chief Innovation Officer, explored what it would take to translate this ambition into practical delivery.
Cllr Katie Thornburrow of Cambridge City Council discussed the role of planning and development in driving much greater water efficiency, including standards for new homes, recycled water and opportunities for both individual and shared water storage.
Lizzie Sears of The Crown Estate highlighted the opportunity for major development to integrate water and nature from the outset. Discussion of Cambridge Business Park included the potential for wetlands and other interventions to become part of how the site develops, providing an opportunity to demonstrate benefits for people and nature.
Dr Paul Leinster CBE of Water Resources East highlighted the importance of aligning plans for housing and economic growth with water-resource and wastewater planning, particularly where major growth proposals sit outside existing local plans.
Krystian Zajac of Watergate AI focused on the potential to make water use more visible within buildings. Better measurement and monitoring can identify problems such as leaks and unnecessary consumption, enabling organisations to act on water in the way many already do with energy.
Across the discussion, a common theme emerged: Greater Cambridge’s water challenge cannot be solved through a single intervention or organisation. Infrastructure, planning, regulation, technology, investment and nature-based solutions all need to form part of the response.
From local demonstration to wider change
Introducing the Water Living Lab, James Cole highlighted Cambridge’s opportunity to use its concentration of research, innovation and organisations to prove solutions locally that could ultimately have relevance elsewhere.
That principle sits at the heart of CISL’s Living Lab. By connecting demonstration sites, innovators and organisations and sharing evidence across them, the programme aims to move beyond isolated interventions towards approaches that can be replicated and scaled. The evidence generated can also help inform future investment, planning and policy.
The launch marks an important step towards making Greater Cambridge a practical testbed for a different approach to water: one that connects sustainable growth with greater resilience and the restoration of nature and turns innovation into evidence for action.