Episode 1: Home of Innovation, Scotland

Dr. Martin Valenti an award-winning sustainability practitioner and serial disruptor, with extensive experience of strategic business engagement and innovation has recently undertaken a newly created role to lead the economic and community development agency’s efforts to help the region to transition to a NetZero economy. This includes taking forward the work of the South of Scotland Energy Transition Group’s Powering Change call to action. For over 30 years he has worked in a variety of senior management roles shaping and delivering inclusive growth initiatives and directing major collaborative projects.

Martin worked for SEPA for 17 years where he held a number of senior positions. He played an instrumental role in setting up Scotland’s 2020 Climate Group and co-created the award winning 2050 Young Leaders Climate Group. In 2018 he created the Vacant and Derelict Land taskforce to transform how Scotland deals with its post-industrial legacy to make more use of land for commerce and communities.

His most recent role was a secondment at Scottish Enterprise as Head of Climate Enterprise and strategic lead for COP26.

Dr. Faisal Ghani is Founder and CEO of SolarisKit Ltd, a cleantech company on a mission to provide global access to affordable, carbon free heat. He is the inventor of the world’s first flat-packable, self-assembled solar collector. A device which can turn sunlight into hot water, specifically developed for the global south were access to clean heating remains incredibly low. Faisal developed the solution after he learnt that households in East Africa were spending up to 40% of their income to pay their energy bill, the majority of which went into heating water. As a mechanical engineer with over 15 years of experience working in the solar thermal field, Faisal decided to develop a new solution which addressed barriers preventing the wide-scale adoption of solar thermal solutions.