About Shade the UK
Our vision
Shade the UK is a Community Interest Company (CIC) focused on adapting the built environment and public spaces to protect the vulnerable against a changing climate.
Temperatures are rising in the UK, impacting our health, our homes, our workplaces and shared spaces. Yet many of the spaces around us were not designed for rising temperatures, leaving people, especially those most vulnerable, at greater risk of the impacts of extreme heat.
We work with researchers, universities, local authorities, schools, housing providers, community groups, cultural & heritage organisations and policymakers to better understand overheating and find practical ways to reduce its impact. Through research, guidance, training and collaboration, we help turn knowledge into action and support the creation of cooler, healthier and more resilient places in the UK.
Our vision is simple: zero deaths from overheating and a UK where everyone can live, work and thrive in hot weather.
Our theory of change
Temperatures are rising in the UK as a result of climate change. People’s health and wellbeing is impacted by hotter weather and vulnerable people are dying.
Our work is guided by our Theory of Change. Zero deaths from overheating and a UK where everybody can live, work and thrive in hot weather.
Team
Our dedicated and talented team work together to achieve our mission
Interested in joining us?
Andy
Lauren
Marietta
Maryam
Polly
Shreya
Ambassadors
Our ambassadors bring knowledge and expertise from a wide range of sectors, including arts and culture, academic research, broadcast, and climate science.
They play an important role in supporting our mission by helping to build momentum for our work and holding us to account to ensure we create meaningful, lasting change.
Kasang Kajang
Kasang is the Founding Director of Ksquared, who work primarily within the social sector
Kasang Kajang
Kasang is the Founding Director of Ksquared, who work primarily within the social sector helping Social Landlords fund, design and deliver retrofit works to properties in line with 2050 Net Zero target. Kasang has +15 years of experience in the construction industry specialising in sustainability. She is a Chartered Architect, Project Manager and Retrofit Coordinator. Kasang is also a Trustee for BDGiving, a Design Council Expert and a Design Review panel member for both Hackney Design Review Panel & Folkestone and Hythe Place Panel. She has a passion for sustainability and social equity, both of which are strongly aligning with Shade The UK's mission to safeguard the health and wellbeing of vulnerable people during hot weather.
ARB AADipl Level 5 Dipl in Retrofit Level 3 Traditional Buildings
Susie Diamond
Susie is a an expert in the prediction of overheating risk in homes
Susie Diamond
Susie is a partner at Inkling who are dynamic thermal modelling specialists. She has become an expert in the prediction of overheating risk in homes; she was a lead author on CIBSE TM59 ‘Design methodology for the assessment of overheating risk in homes’, now referenced by Part O within the Building Regulations, and the one-page early design GHA tool published in 2019, plus supported the retrofit version. She is currently leading other authors and researchers on an update to TM59 due out this year.
Susie is determined that shading and other passive mitigations should be prioritised before mechanical solutions to overheating risk.
Anna Beswick
Anna is a Policy Fellow at the London School of Economics Grantham Research Institute (LSE-GRI) working on climate adaptation and resilience
Anna Beswick
Anna is a Policy Fellow at the London School of Economics Grantham Research Institute (LSE-GRI) working on climate adaptation and resilience. Extreme heat is a key focus across Anna's work.
She contributed to LSE-GRI’s leading work on extreme heat in the UK including learning from the 2022 heatwaves in England and developing work with Shade the UK on Building Heat Resilient Neighbourhoods.
Anna leads LSE’s policy input to the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance which is focused on enhancing resilience to climate hazards across 15 countries. Anna is also Director of the ATTENUATE project which is developing a climate adaptation investment framework for the UK.
Jon Cochrane
Jon leads asset management and ESG implementation at Feldberg Capital
Jon Cochrane
Jon leads asset management and ESG implementation at Feldberg Capital, a real estate investment and asset management firm focused on creating sustainable, high-quality properties across Europe.
He has recently delivered decarbonisation pathways and CRREM (carbon risk real estate monitor) modelling across all assets, along with major retrofit works to future-proof commercial buildings.
Having worked in London for nearly 15 years, Jon has developed a deep understanding and concern for the adaptability of real estate in the city. He sees an urgent need for the industry to rethink how we develop and manage commercial real estate to better deal with climate change and extreme heat.
Chloe Brimicombe
Dr Chloe Brimicombe is an award-winning early career climate scientist currently working for the Royal Meteorological Society in the UK.
Chloe Brimicombe
Dr Chloe Brimicombe is an award-winning early career climate scientist currently working for the Royal Meteorological Society in the UK. Her research focuses on heatwaves and other extreme weather events and the impacts on women and children and early warning system developed and policy. She got her PhD at the University of Reading in Partnership with the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting and went on to do post-docs at the University of Graz and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She also consults into UN agencies such as UNICEF and the World Bank. She is also a science communicator having spoken to over 100 media organisations globally about climate change and solutions including in Austria and the UK.
Neil Bancroft
Neil is a chartered Landscape Architect focusing on the evolving relationship between people, nature, and the built environment.
Neil Bancroft
Neil is a chartered Landscape Architect with over 15 years' experience and a founding director of Green liminal, focusing on the evolving relationship between people, nature, and the built environment.
His work ranges from small interventions to larger city-scale, river catchments and food systems, to detailed roofscapes and street corners: guided by a belief in the power of place to support wellbeing, movement, and everyday connections with nature. He aims to create public spaces, streets, parks, and riversides that feel alive, relevant, and welcoming.
Neil is committed to research-led design that responds to the uniqueness of each place and supports emerging designers through his work at Edinburgh University.
This perspective shapes his dedication to Shade the UK's mission to build heat-resilient, climate-adapted, and inclusive environments. He brings expertise in landscape architecture, place-based design thinking, and horticultural sensitivity to the ambassador role, helping raise awareness and inspire meaningful change for people and planet.
Alex Winterbotham
An experienced producer whose output spans television, live events and immersive experiences, working at the intersection of emerging technology, storytelling and wellbeing
Alex Winterbotham
Alex Winterbotham is an experienced producer whose output spans television, live events and immersive experiences. As CEO of award-winning interactive studio OmBeond, Alex's main focus now lies at the intersection of emerging technology, storytelling and wellbeing. Previous clients have included PwC, Amazon and UKRI. Alex sits on the steering committee of the Mental Health Innovation Network, committed to furthering industry and research collaboration. He previously co-founded Echobubbles, a social venture committed to producing low-omission online events and conferences.
