This summer we were fortunate to work with Saltire Scholar* Catriona Taylor. Her objective over her 12 week internship with Crosswind Developments (the company behind Elements Edinburgh) was to research the social benefits of urban parks.
We’ve been sharing snippets of Catriona’s research on our blog over the last 3 months, and now, we’re ready to share her full report.
Like our blogs, the report is based on four main areas of research showing the potential impacts across a diverse range of people. Catriona looked at the impacts on inclusivity, education, health & wellbeing, and sustainable communities, interviewing leading experts in each field to gain insights into measuring the possible effects.
To read the whole report just click on the image below.
*The Saltire Scholar Programme is Entrepreneurial Scotland’s flagship programme designed to find ambitious penultimate and final year undergraduate university students in Scotland with the potential of becoming future leaders.
The programme puts students on a year-long transformational personal development journey, culminating in an 8-12 week fully funded summer internship with host companies from across the world. On this journey, students complete impactful commercial projects and experience personal development workshops. Through this, students develop their leadership potential and feel empowered to drive growth and impact as they navigate their future careers.
PRESS RELEASE
Crosswind Developments, the vehicle driving the ambitious Elements Edinburgh development site, has welcomed the new consultation on a recently released draft of the West Edinburgh Placemaking Framework and Strategic Masterplan, issued by the City of Edinburgh Council. It is one of three relevant public consultations launched.
The draft masterplan outlines the Council’s ambition to build a new neighbourhood along the A8 corridor, next to Edinburgh Airport. The development aims to provide 11,000 new homes, along with shops, schools, healthcare and leisure facilities, all situated within a well-
connected neighbourhood. The council is consulting on various aspects of the plans, as well as the needs of the area’s existing residents. Feedback on the consultation will be used to finalise a masterplan, which will then go the Council’s Planning Committee.
The proposed area encompasses the planned Elements Edinburgh site, which Crosswind owns and is looking to develop. Elements Edinburgh promises to bring together 2,500 homes – including almost 900 affordable homes – in a vibrant 20-minute neighbourhood,
generating 6500 jobs.
John Watson, Chief Executive of Crosswind Development, said:
“We welcome the proposals laid out in the West Edinburgh Placemaking Framework and Strategic Masterplan. They represent the kind of ambitious development that will elevate the west of Edinburgh, driving the city forward, creating inclusive communities and
supporting economic growth.
“These are the values that are at the heart of our proposed Elements Edinburgh site, so we are delighted to see the alignment between the proposed framework and our own development. Both plans prioritise inclusive and sustainable placemaking and both put the wellbeing of residents at their heart. We will continue to work in partnership with the Council and offer our full support as these plans progress.”
ENDS
The consultation can be viewed here – https://consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/sfc/west-edinburgh-placemaking-framework/
We want to share our vision for Elements Edinburgh with you and the best way to do that is to take you on a virtual tour.
In our computer generated video you’ll see where we are situated, close to Edinburgh airport and Edinburgh Gateway station providing easy transport links to the city, as well as distinctive views in all directions with longer views to the Pentland Hills, Forth bridges, Corstorphine Hill and the Edinburgh skyline.
Residents will benefit from 42% open space, a community garden, a high quality play park and great places for gathering both formally and informally.
In addition, there will be a network of accessible footways and cycle tracks providing access for all including wheelchair users and pushchairs, along with measured walking and running circuits ranging from 400m to 2.5km.
Our central community hub will be car free, creating a central public space able to support flexible uses, including public events and activities. Car and cycle parking areas and pedestrian and cycle paths are overlooked by surrounding properties providing a safe environment for all.
Elements Edinburgh will be a sustainable community that individuals and organisations are proud to call home, which prioritises people, inspires businesses, and enriches it’s environment to build a better future for all.
It was great to have such an engaged and enthusiastic audience at yesterday’s Scotsman Investment Conference in Edinburgh. Despite the current tough financial climate, session discussions were energetic, informative, and positive about the current and future direction of impact investing on people, place, and planet.
Our panel discussion examined the role of ESG measurement and what more companies and investors can do to target their resources for greatest return, whilst identifying the material risk and opportunities for their business. Advice for new investors and companies on
the ESG journey included ensuring transparency in their reporting, taking targeted actions to mitigate external business risks and the need to maintain focus on emerging global legislation and policy frameworks.
A “fireside chat” with our Chair, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, closed the Conference, providing delegates and guests with greater insight into Crosswind Developments and our ambitious vision for Edinburgh.
Another successful Crosswind stakeholder event reinforcing the power of partnership, collaboration and engagement in delivering economic transformation for Edinburgh and Scotland.
Lesley Sawers is a non-executive director of Crosswind Developments
The Annual Scotsman Investment Conference takes place this week and we are pleased that Crosswind Developments is one of the supporting partners.
We particularly welcome the opportunity to join colleagues from leading investment companies and other experts in ESG best practice to reopen a national conversation on social investment and the role the private sector can play in helping to deliver social impact and inclusive economic growth from major capital projects. We also look forward to hearing from successful businesses from across Scotland who have ESG values at the heart of their business models.
Social investment seeks to generate both financial returns and measurable environmental and social impact, at Crosswinds we believe these are the two sides of the same coin. These values are central to our business model. As social investors we are motivated not only by potential financial returns but also by a desire and passion to make a positive difference to the City of Edinburgh by creating jobs, building much needed affordable housing, investing in sustainable infrastructure, and creating a new 9.4 acre public park unlocking the biodiversity of a unique location for everyone to enjoy.
Collaboration, partnerships, and collective action are key to the successful delivery of any major project, we hope that the Scotsman Investment Conference will help focus our minds on what we can be achieved by sharing our knowledge, wisdom and experience and pulling
our collective resources. By working together, leveraging our social capital, and targeting investment we believe that Crosswinds can make a positive, sustainable impact and help deliver inclusive economic growth for Edinburgh and Scotland.
Lesley Sawers is a non-executive director of Crosswind Developments
What comes to mind when we think of Venice? The Grand Canal thoroughfare, obviously. Its rich and detailed architecture. And the environmental challenges it faces, sinking into the waters which surround it.
What probably doesn’t enter our thoughts is the concept of Venice as a financial centre but, in the fourteenth century, it was the most powerful in Europe, if not the world.
Similarly, between 1870 and 1914 Argentina’s GDP, driven by Buenos Aires, grew at an annual rate of six per cent, making it one of the 10 wealthiest countries in the world, ahead of France, Germany and Italy. By contrast, the South American nation’s recent history consists of two sovereign bond defaults in the past 20 years alone.
If there is a lesson here, it is that ambitious cities must adapt to a world that is constantly shifting around us, embracing new thinking and technologies – especially digital technologies – to move with the times. Those which do not will be left behind.
Edinburgh, wonderful city that it is, needs to heed such lessons. Scotland’s capital city has a deserved reputation as an international financial centre, a global hub where commerce and culture coexist and thrive. However, it has no divine right to retain that status in perpetuity. Complacency is a real and constant danger and recent developments should give us pause for thought.
The latest global financial centres index showed Edinburgh had fallen six places in six months, from 21st to 27th in the league table, one of only 11 cities among the 119 evaluated to have dropped in the rankings, and a city whose perceived stability is verging on “unpredictable”.
Edinburgh is projected to overtake Glasgow as Scotland’s largest city in the next 20 or 30 years. So, far from managing any form of decline, we must instead create a framework and a blueprint that supports infrastructure development, builds inclusive, sustainable communities, retains the brightest talent, and drives the city’s wider economic growth.
This is a time for innovative and bold thinking to be matched by an appetite for taking risk and seizing opportunities. For example, a number of developments are presently being proposed to turn barren brownfield sites into thriving community hubs, providing inspirational places to live and work whilst adhering to the highest possible biodiversity and environmental standards. I am proud to represent the company with a vision for one such development, the prospective Elements Edinburgh site on the city’s western periphery, where our ambition is to transform the site of a disused runway into a community that includes 2,500 homes and a digital business campus attracting companies and creating quality jobs.
As we wait to learn the identity of our next first minister, Edinburgh – and Scotland as a whole – has many assets at its disposal, but the luxury of time isn’t one of them.
Steve Dunlop is a non executive director of Crosswind Developments
This article first appeared in The Scotsman 15th March 2023
Recent policy levers and interventions have helped offset rises in unemployment in cities like Edinburgh. However, as we move slowly towards economic recovery, the labour market is now a far worse place for many young people, women, and people from ethnic minorities than it was 12 months ago.
Employees and job seekers face precarious employment or even unemployment, and many businesses experience financial uncertainty, rising costs and closure.
Post pandemic, we have also witnessed changes in socio-economic behaviours, for example the rise of home working, blended learning, and the exponential growth of online services. Therefore, we need to consider not only innovation and change in terms of physical infrastructure and assets, but we also need to look at creating new workplaces that reflect the changes we have seen in terms of the future needs of businesses and the expectations of workers.
Whilst the concept of social infrastructure is not a new one, it is gaining increasing awareness and importance as a key component in delivering inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
As early as 2011, the Scottish Cities Alliance (a collaboration of the leaders and chief executives of Scotland’s cities) recognised the need for “social cities” to address the challenges of inequality, diversity, and inclusion, aligning proposed city infrastructure investment with social returns or dividends in terms of the impact on jobs, education, training, wellbeing, and the environment. More than a decade on, we now need to turn that understanding into action.
In many boardrooms, it is known as ESG (environment, social and governance) impact investment, and it provides a strategic pathway to consider how we need to link the drive for national growth, productivity and capital investment with the needs and challenges of local communities and civic society.
We often hear the language of co-location, co-creation and co-production used by policy makers and politicians to describe how we can best work together to drive change and stimulate innovation. However, we also need to learn from areas where this is already happening, where we already have communities of interest working together, not only imagining how we can build back better, but also in moving forward with plans and actions to make it happen.
One example of such a vision is Elements in the west of Edinburgh, reimagining the use of a 74-acre brownfield site with the aim of creating a new international digital quarter for Scotland. It would involve the creation of a new urban park, with a focus on the wellbeing of residents and workers alike, in a business campus which supports and nurtures sustainable businesses. Elements has at its core the principles of social inclusion: these social values form the foundation on which we plan to build physical infrastructure, including much-needed housing, and create business opportunity and growth. Accessible to all, we plan to work with partners to help create a social infrastructure, embedding social inclusion principles in our plans from the outset, and working with public and private partners who share our values and vision.
We have big ambitions and a unique approach: we believe Elements can not only help change how we achieve inclusive, sustainable economic growth and improve productivity in Scotland but, most importantly, how we can set a new standard for the private sector in our contribution to the parallel development of social and physical infrastructure that helps address inequality and inclusion within our communities.
Dr Lesley Sawers is a non executive director of Crosswind Developments
This article first appeared in The Scotsman 6th March 2023
Too many commercial developments are built to maximise density for profit rather than designed with the aim of attracting people to live and work there, according to an expert in regeneration and economic development.
Speaking to The Scotsman for a Sustainable Scotland podcast on ‘impactful placemaking’, Steve Dunlop, board member at Crosswind Developments, said: “There are lots of examples where developments go wrong, where people are a secondary consideration.”
Crosswind Developments, backed by Global Infrastructure Partners, said it is focusing on impactful placemaking in its vision for Elements Edinburgh in the west of the Scottish capital. This regeneration project of a brownfield site would include Scotland’s first dedicated Digital Quarter. The 30 hectare site would have affordable housing, commercial development, retail and leisure – with a focus on the natural environment.
Contributing to the Sustainable Scotland podcast, John Watson, chief executive of Crosswind Developments, said: “For me, the test of whether you’ve created an impact in placemaking is not just about what we see today, but what we will experience tomorrow. Our objective for Crosswind is, and always has been, to build a place that future generations will be proud of.
“Scotland has a long history of creating places we are currently proud of, such as Edinburgh Castle, but many were built generations ago. We want to invest for the future.
“Our placemaking strategy for Elements Edinburgh is based on the positive foundations of creating a great place to live. A place that is good for wellbeing, provides access to green space and benefits the animals and the plants that live there. These are key things that matter.”
Therefore, according to Crosswind Developments, impactful placemaking is all about creating sustainable communities that individuals and organisations want to call home, which prioritise people, inspire businesses, and enrich the natural environment.
Watson added: “Our development would send a very clear message to the global investment community that Scotland is open for business, and that the country is willing to get behind bold, ambitious projects.”
John Watson is chief executive of Crosswind Developments
Steve Dunlop is a non-executive director of Crosswind Developments
This article first appeared in The Scotsman 23rd February 2023
How do we create places people love to live in the 21st century? And can Scotland be a world leader in creating vibrant communities by using private investment to unlock social, environmental and employment benefits for residents?
Dr Lesley Sawers OBE, Scotland and GB commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, says yes in the latest episode of the Sustainable Scotland podcast.
Dr Sawers is also a Board member of Crosswind, which is developing the £1 billion Elements Edinburgh project on a 30-hectare brownfield site beside the airport.
There are plans to build 2500 homes, with 42% of green space and 9.5km of walking and cycling routes, and Scotland’s first Digital Quarter. The project could create up to 6000 jobs.
Dr Sawers believes the development can tick all the boxes for residents in creating a place that people will want to live – and stay.
“We use terms like inclusive and sustainable communities but practically, that means affordable, warm, efficient housing built to international best standards,” she says. “It means access to good quality jobs for everyone and access to open space. A sense of being and belonging is really important, and we’re hardwiring that into the development of Elements Edinburgh.”
The podcast, Places People Love to Live, also features Sarah Smith, Director of Communities at Link Group, one of Scotland’s largest social housing providers.
She says: “We all broadly want the same things from where we live; a good-quality, well-maintained property we can afford to run, in a safe area with access to outdoor spaces, and the opportunity to get to know people.
“The words for me are safe, healthy, and hopefully happy – but also inclusive, which is the critical building block for a community to be sustainable. What we appreciate at Link, is that giving people a lovely, affordable house is not necessarily enough for people to live well. Many people need additional support.”
Dr Sawers believes private investment and social investment can go hand in hand.
“You have to align that return on investment and capital with returns on social capital. That’s what Link Group is doing, and we want to do that at scale with Crosswind,” she says.
“Scotland is ahead of the game in terms of recognising how we can leverage investment to address some of the inequities and unfairness that we have in society.
“I’m optimistic that an investor like Global Infrastructure Partners has recognised the opportunity in Edinburgh to potentially invest £1 billion and recognise that they can actually deliver social impact as well as a return on investment.
“That’s world-leading. We have the vision, so what we need is to ensure we get the policies and the planning frameworks that can enable these visions and opportunities to become a reality. We need to join the dots, get the framework right – and then Scotland would be motoring.”
John Watson is chief executive of Crosswind Developments
Dr Lesley Sawer is a non-executive director of Crosswind Developments
Sarah Smith is Director of Communities for Link Group
This article first appeared in The Scotsman 23rd February 2023
● Crosswind Developments’ appeal for its Elements Edinburgh planning application has been passed by the planning reporter to Scottish Government Ministers for a final decision
● The development, which includes a Digital Quarter, would bring much-needed global investment to Scotland, generate 6,600 jobs and boost Scotland’s GVA by £460m per year
● Proposal is for 2,500 homes and more than 1M sq. ft of commercial space
● Elements Edinburgh’s Digital Quarter would support start-ups, growing digital businesses, and global tech firms
An application to build a new Digital Quarter on a major brownfield site in West Edinburgh which could help boost Scotland’s technology sector, generate more than 6000 jobs and build 2500 much-needed homes is now with Scottish Government ministers for a decision.
The application, by Crosswind Developments, for the site on the decommissioned crosswind runway near Edinburgh Airport, one of only two major brownfield sites identified as suitable for large-scale development by the City of Edinburgh Council, should have been considered by city planners by December 2020 the latest.
As they were unable to make a decision within the required timescale, an appeal was then lodged by Crosswind in April 2021.
The Scottish Government initially indicated that the outcome of the appeal would be decided as part of a wider look at the development strategy for West Edinburgh but there has been no progress on this.
John Watson, CEO of Crosswind Developments is optimistic about a positive decision and confident ministers will want to capitalise on the inward investment available for Scotland.
“We believe our focus on digital industries, inclusive living and our commitment to net-zero carbon operationally mean our development is of national significance for Scotland.
“We’re looking forward to positive engagement with ministers on our proposal and we’re 0ptimistic they’ll be as keen as we are to unlock West Edinburgh’s jobs and housing potential to global investment. We hope they’ll also be eager to avoid a repeat of the Murray Estates Garden District decision timetable which was with ministers for around five years before being approved.”
The plan for the Garden District, which is near to the Elements site, was approved earlier this year but only after a lengthy delay.
Watson continued: “We remain committed to West Edinburgh and are ready to proceed as soon as we receive a positive planning decision. Unnecessary delay is no one’s interest, especially at a time when global private sector investment is becoming more competitive to secure and much more critical to Scotland’s economic development”
Elements Edinburgh will deliver a 20-minute, low-traffic neighbourhood with 2,493 much-needed homes, 35% of which will be affordable. All residential units will be flats or apartments in blocks of 4-6 storeys within 500m of generous open green space. The scale and density will be urban, rather than suburban, with pedestrian priority and high-quality public realm.
With a Digital Quarter aimed at building a home for global and local technology companies at its heart, Crosswind has been determined to make Elements Edinburgh a sustainable and inclusive development which could play its part in Edinburgh’s “green recovery” from Covid.
The social benefit of urban parks
11th September 2023
This summer we were fortunate to work with Saltire Scholar* Catriona Taylor. Her objective over her 12 week internship with Crosswind Developments (the company behind Elements Edinburgh) was to research…
Crosswind Developments welcomes ambitious new framework for West Edinburgh
25th July 2023
PRESS RELEASE Crosswind Developments, the vehicle driving the ambitious Elements Edinburgh development site, has welcomed the new consultation on a recently released draft of the West Edinburgh Placemaking Framework and…
Our vision for Elements Edinburgh in 3D
4th April 2023
We want to share our vision for Elements Edinburgh with you and the best way to do that is to take you on a virtual tour. In our computer…
Dr Lesley Sawers OBE: The Scotsman investment conference 2023
23rd March 2023
It was great to have such an engaged and enthusiastic audience at yesterday’s Scotsman Investment Conference in Edinburgh. Despite the current tough financial climate, session discussions were energetic, informative, and…
Dr Lesley Sawers OBE: The Scotsman investment conference 2023
21st March 2023
The Annual Scotsman Investment Conference takes place this week and we are pleased that Crosswind Developments is one of the supporting partners. We particularly welcome the opportunity to join colleagues…
Steve Dunlop: Edinburgh must show ambition to remain globally competitive
20th March 2023
What comes to mind when we think of Venice? The Grand Canal thoroughfare, obviously. Its rich and detailed architecture. And the environmental challenges it faces, sinking into the waters which…
Dr Lesley Sawers OBE: Social infrastructure is vital for sustainable economic growth
6th March 2023
Recent policy levers and interventions have helped offset rises in unemployment in cities like Edinburgh. However, as we move slowly towards economic recovery, the labour market is now a far…
Impactful placemaking – what it is and why Scotland needs it
24th February 2023
Too many commercial developments are built to maximise density for profit rather than designed with the aim of attracting people to live and work there, according to an expert in…
Creating places people love to live in 21st century Scotland – does private investment hold the key?
23rd February 2023
How do we create places people love to live in the 21st century? And can Scotland be a world leader in creating vibrant communities by using private investment to unlock…
Plans for a new digital quarter move closer as appeal moves to final stage
4th July 2022
● Crosswind Developments’ appeal for its Elements Edinburgh planning application has been passed by the planning reporter to Scottish Government Ministers for a final decision ● The development, which includes…
