Date: 18 June 2026 (Thursday)
Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Venue: King George's Hall & Indoor Bowls Club, Jubilee Way, Chessington KT6 7NA

Join local businesses, community partners and stakeholders for a focused forum to discuss shared challenges, explore collaboration and help shape the future of the estate. Featuring special guest Sir Ed Davey MP.

The showcase highlighted a wide range of research tackling real-world challenges, including gut microbiome and nutrition, heat regulation and human performance, AI chatbots in psychology, community partnerships across South London, dementia and puzzle-based therapy, homelessness and abuse research, and neurodiversity and gambling. Valued partners including BackToBalance, Penumbra and Age UK joined the day, helping extend the reach and impact of research beyond academia.

The Roehampton Sustainable Futures Hub contributed to the wider theme of community partnerships across South London. Led by Associate Professor Ayse Demir, the Hub showcased how research, student involvement and cross-sector collaboration can support practical sustainability action with communities, SMEs and local partners.

The Hub display highlighted three current projects — the Air & Living Infrastructure Initiative, Green Skills for South London, and the Kingston Hive Impact & Capacity Building Project — each demonstrating how evidence-led work responds to real local needs across air quality, green skills, community engagement and impact communication.

It was also a valuable opportunity to speak with academics, students, industry partners and community organisations who visited the Hub stand to learn more about our work and explore future collaboration.

Together, we are committed to driving innovation that supports communities, informs policy and creates meaningful social change. People. Planet. Partnership.

The first Chessington Industrial Estate Community Forum was hosted at King George Field Indoor Bowling Club, delivered in partnership with the University of Roehampton (Roehampton Sustainable Futures Hub), The Community Brain CIC, and local businesses across the estate.

Discussions covered sustainability and green skills, waste management and packaging challenges, business networking, and rebuilding the community connections that industrial estates lost following COVID-19. Attendees included representatives from National Rescue, The Protective Textile Company Ltd, Mollart Engineering, and many other businesses and workers from across the estate.

What stood out most was the willingness of participants to reconnect, contribute ideas, and engage in meaningful conversations around building a stronger and more resilient industrial community.

The project was also presented at the University of Roehampton's Academic Collaboration Showcase on 12 May 2026, where it attracted strong interest from academics, council representatives, SME professionals, engineers, healthcare workers, and sustainability organisations, including international visitors from the Netherlands. Several new partnerships and collaboration opportunities emerged from those conversations.

The next Community Forum is being planned. If you are a business, worker, or community member connected to Chessington Industrial Estate, we would love to hear from you.

The Hub met with Kieren McCarthy of Putney News in Putney as part of the Air & Living Infrastructure project with A Greener London. Joined by Professor Ayse Demir and Elliot Thorpe alongside the Hub team, the meeting focused on sharing progress across the project and the approach being taken to environmental monitoring.

Current focus areas discussed include:

• Real-time air quality monitoring across Putney
• Key locations including the High Street and residential areas
• Understanding PM2.5 and everyday exposure
• Building accessible, transparent data for communities

The key message from the meeting: Start with data → build insight → then implement solutions. More to come as the project develops.

The roundtable brought together stakeholders from Wandsworth Council, A Greener London, South Thames College and industry practitioners alongside University of Roehampton students and Professor Ayse Demir. A student panel featuring Eva Idugboe, Gabriela Molina Murillas, Patrick Orji, Abena Abboah-Offei and Mohammed brought depth, honesty and lived experience into the conversation — shaping the tone of the entire session. The day reminded us that sustainability isn't just a policy ambition. It is a lived practice, built through partnership, shared intelligence and community-led ambition.

Data must be accessible to be transformative. Communities need clearer, more accessible environmental data. When residents, students and local organisations can see what is happening in their neighbourhoods, they are better equipped to make informed decisions and advocate for change.

Skills development is central to London's net zero transition. From green construction to digital sustainability tools, the demand for future-focused skills is growing rapidly. Universities can act as incubators for emerging talent, equipping students not just with knowledge but with agency, confidence and practical experience.

Collaboration is not optional — it is the engine of progress. No single sector can deliver net zero alone. The most impactful ideas emerged when policy, research, community insight and industry expertise intersected.

Sustainability must be lived, not just planned. The tour of SETEC and the Aubyn Square Passivhaus development demonstrated how learning environments can become catalysts for local transformation.

Honest conversations build stronger pathways. People naming challenges, acknowledging gaps and sharing lessons learned created space for more grounded, realistic and actionable ideas.

These insights are shaping how the Roehampton Sustainable Futures Hub continues its work, strengthening partnerships, deepening community engagement and building the skills and systems needed for a greener London.

On the ground at Chessington Industrial Estate. Our first in-person meeting with Community Brain set the foundation for the Green Skills project, focusing on material flows, SME engagement and practical sustainability action at Chessington Industrial Estate.

We walked through Chessington Industrial Estate to understand the local business landscape first-hand. From manufacturing units and service-based companies to seafood processing, packaging operations, roller coaster repair specialists, storage facilities, light industrial workshops and former cosmetics units — the estate reflects a diverse but fragmented industrial ecosystem. We also observed vacant and underused spaces, highlighting both economic shifts and regeneration potential, especially after Covid-19.

Following the visit, we discussed how the estate could be reimagined as a more connected, community-oriented and sustainability-driven space. Conversations focused on practical strategies to revive local engagement, strengthen SME collaboration and embed green skills within real business contexts.

Understanding place before proposing change. That's where meaningful impact begins. The site visit allowed us to see the context first-hand, connecting research with real-world business environments.

The visit on 18 February 2026 provided an opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions with the Kingston Hive team, gather insights from the community and explore practical approaches to monitoring impact and strengthening sustainable growth.

This work forms part of the Hub's continued partnership with Kingston Hive, supporting its development through research, data analysis and strategic evaluation — ensuring that the value of Kingston Hive's community-led work is clearly evidenced and communicated in a way that is proportionate, practical and funder-ready.

This meeting, held in collaboration with Putney Action Group (PAG), explored the use of air monitoring devices across urban settings, including school environments and riverside homes. By combining research, monitoring and community insight, the partnership is building pathways toward healthier and more sustainable neighbourhoods.

The session brought together the Roehampton Sustainable Futures Hub, A Greener London and the University of Roehampton, reinforcing the cross-sector collaboration that underpins the Air & Living Infrastructure Initiative's approach to evidence-led environmental action across London.

On 29 January 2026, a second meeting was held between Professor Ayse Demir, her research team and Elliot Thorpe, Director of A Greener London. The team engaged in meaningful discussions with Mr Thorpe, strengthening the collaboration and advancing shared goals between the University of Roehampton and A Greener London.

The meeting focused on planning the air quality analysis process and identifying suitable locations for the living walls initiative — a key component of the Air & Living Infrastructure Initiative's approach to nature-based solutions across London.

We were pleased to attend the AGM of Kingston Hive on 27 January 2026 as the University of Roehampton Research Team, strengthening our collaborative partnership and shared commitment to evidencing community-led impact.

The AGM was an opportunity to hear about the year's impact, celebrate the dedication of volunteers, and reflect on the collective effort driving climate action, creativity and connection in Kingston upon Thames.

As partners, we value being part of conversations that centre community-led change, shared learning and sustainable growth. Spaces like this remind us that meaningful impact happens through collaboration, trust and a shared vision for a greener, more connected future.

On 23 January 2026, the Roehampton Sustainable Futures Hub held its first formal meeting with The Community Brain, marking the official beginning of the Green Skills for South London partnership. This foundational session set the direction, values and collaborative framework that would underpin the project's community-led, trust-first approach to green skills development across South London SMEs and communities.

The meeting established the shared goals and working relationship between the University of Roehampton and The Community Brain — a partnership that has since driven the project's delivery at Chessington Industrial Estate and beyond.

Our first official project meeting was held on 21 January 2026, bringing together the University of Roehampton and A Greener London in support of the Air and Living Infrastructure Initiative. Professor Ayse Demir and her research team, including Councillor Ethan Brooks and Elliot Thorpe, gathered to discuss the direction and objectives of the Air & Living Infrastructure Initiative.

This important session marked the beginning of formal collaboration between project partners, providing an opportunity to align on research goals, implementation plans, and community impact — reinforcing our shared commitment to improving urban air quality and promoting sustainable living infrastructure across London.

The meeting set the foundation for all subsequent research, monitoring and community engagement activity that has followed across the ALII initiative.