Think Tank. Systems Studio. Energy Design.
Roadmap
We’re motivated by helping people live well, communites thrive and the planet heal.
WHAT TO EXPECT
A progressive way to redesign your energy future.
This roadmap exists to help you slow the overwhelm, see the whole picture and work with the possibilities already in front of you. It invites you back to what matters: Making heat work–or life.
✷ A Clear DirectionWe help you see how your estate fits into the wider energy system so decisions feel calmer, more grounded and more confidently made.
✷ Practical ProgressWe translate complexity into steps you can actually take, no theory, no hype, just forward movement that works in the real world.
✷ Designed For LifeWe design strategies that stand up to winters, budgets, staffing changes and policy swings, so you’re building resilience, not dependency.
✷ Built For GenerationsHeat is generational infrastructure. Our work protects today’s priorities while making sure tomorrow’s communities inherit something stronger.
Why it matters now
Heating is one of the biggest factors shaping comfort, cost and carbon across the UK’s public estate. Yet the systems we rely on, from hospital plants to universty boilers to local distribution networks, were never built for a world of climate pressure, stretched budgets and growing demand.
Today, electricity prices remain high, gas networks are reaching the end of their life and many estates are operating with infrastructure that is two or three generations old. At the same time, national policy is shifting fast: heat zoning, market reform and new regulatory frameworks will fundamentally reshape how heat is produced, shared and paid for.
This is the moment to redesign heat as a whole system, not a set of isolated assets. Done well, it can lower long-term costs, strengthen resilience and ensure that the places most in need of stable warmth benefit first. It’s a chance to move from coping to planning and from heat as a problem to heat as a public good.
1 · See the whole estate clearly
We start by making the invisible system visible – plant rooms, pipework, tariffs, controls and the places they serve – in one shared picture.
You get a simple map of where heat flows, where it leaks, and where comfort, cost and carbon are under most strain.
The outcome is a clear, agreed view of risk and opportunity so everyone is talking about the same estate, not four different versions of it.
2 · Shape the right projects
From that map, we help you turn competing ideas into a small number of sensible options that work for budgets, disruption windows and Net Zero plans.
Briefs, business cases and phasing plans are written in plain language, so boards, finance teams and operators can all see why each step matters.
You move from “what can we install this year” to “what future are we choosing – and in what order”.
3 · Build networks that work in use
We support the detailed design and assurance of heat pumps, networks and controls so they perform in the real world, not just in a model.
Comfort, maintenance and resilience are treated as design requirements, not afterthoughts – every line on a drawing is checked against how people will live and work with it.
The result is systems that are easier to run, easier to explain and far less likely to need a rescue project three winters in.
4 · Learn and adapt over time
Once new systems are live, we help you turn performance data and lived experience into simple feedback loops for the estate team.
You get straightforward routines, visuals and check-ins that keep comfort, cost and carbon on track without adding another complex programme.
Over time, each project makes the next one easier – your estate becomes a learning system, not a series of one-off fixes.
ROADMAP
We design heat so people live well,
estates run calmer and carbon falls.
If you are here you are probably carrying big responsibilities. Keeping buildings warm without wasting money. Hitting climate commitments without breaking services. Making decisions that still feel sound in twenty years.
Generation 7 exists for that space. This roadmap is how we move from isolated projects to systems that work for life on real estates.
In one line
We redesign how heat moves through estates so comfort, cost and carbon all pull in the same direction.
WHY THIS ROADMAP
Heat is invisible until it fails. The decisions you take now will last decades.
In most hospitals, campuses and public estates, heating and cooling sit quietly behind almost everything that matters. Comfort. Costs. Emissions. Resilience. Yet decisions about heat are often made in fragments. One bid here, one plant replacement there, and a network that nobody fully sees.
Estate emissions
50–80%
For many estates heat and power together drive most operational emissions. Any credible climate plan runs through the plant room.
System risk
24 / 7
Ageing kit, opaque controls and stretched teams leave little margin for error. When there is no shared map of the system, risk multiplies.
Time horizon
20–40 yrs
Choices on plant, networks and fabric set the pattern of comfort, cost and carbon for decades. Each project is a chance to reset that future.
HOW THE ROADMAP WORKS
From fire fighting to future ready, one phase at a time.
This is not a theory of change that lives in a slide deck. It is a practical path we keep walking with hospitals, housing providers, councils and campuses. Each phase builds on the last. Better questions lead to better briefs. Better briefs lead to better designs. Better designs lead to systems that feel good to live with, not just good on paper.
See the whole system
Make the invisible system visible before anyone touches a spanner.
- Whole-estate heat and energy mapping that links plant, pipework and places.
- Workshops that surface what is working, what is fragile and what is wasting money.
- Simple shared language for comfort, risk and performance that boards can follow.
Outcome: a clear picture of where you are, and a set of principles for what good looks like on this estate.
Shape better briefs
Turn that shared picture into decisions that actually change outcomes.
- Heat decarbonisation pathways that link real sites, real loads and real costs.
- Briefs and funding cases that explain the why as clearly as the what.
- Phasing plans that respect disruption, resilience and the lived reality of each place.
Outcome: projects that are set up to succeed before procurement even starts.
Design systems that work in use
Design heat as a service people depend on, not just a scheme on a drawing.
- Design and review of low-temperature networks and fifth generation concepts.
- Checks that comfort, maintenance and resilience are built in from day one.
- Support through procurement so the intent of the design survives delivery.
Outcome: systems that behave well through winters, not just at ribbon cutting.
Turn estates into learning systems
Use every project to make the next one easier and smarter.
- Performance reviews that combine data with what it feels like on the ground.
- Simple tools and templates so local teams can keep improving without consultants in the room.
- Stories that help others across your organisation see what is possible, not just reports.
Outcome: an estate that keeps learning, rather than repeating the same mistakes.
You do not have to start at Phase 1. Many clients arrive with a live project, a stalled bid or a network that never worked as promised. We meet you where you are and plug into the phase that helps most.
WHERE THIS ROADMAP LIVES
From single plant rooms to whole places.
We work with people who are responsible for shared places where comfort, cost and carbon all matter at once. The roadmap stays the same. The context and constraints are always local.
Hospitals and healthcare
Acute and community sites where heat is critical to care and downtime is not an option. We keep patients, staff and estates teams in view at every step.
Government estates
Departments, agencies and defence estates that need credible, fundable and resilient pathways for very large energy footprints.
Local authorities and towns
Councils and partners using heat networks, regeneration and public investment to support healthier streets, homes and civic buildings.
Housing providers
Social landlords and developers decarbonising blocks and networks while keeping residents onside and bills as fair as possible.
Campuses and universities
Complex mixed estates balancing research, student experience and long-lived assets that need to work in a changing climate.
Community and innovation partners
Anchor institutions and innovators exploring fifth generation networks, waste heat reuse and community scale systems.
TRACK RECORD
We already sit in the middle of some of the UK’s most significant heat work.
The roadmap is not speculative. It comes from years of work in estates where failure would be felt immediately by real people.
Kingston University Hospital
Led low-temperature heat pump and de-steaming design for a complex clinical estate, cutting emissions by around a quarter while keeping services running.
Defence Infrastructure Organisation
Helped shape a decarbonisation pathway for a government estate with a very large annual energy footprint, balancing resilience, security and carbon.
UK Parliament
Directed utilities appraisal that set a resilient, lower-carbon and lowest lifecycle cost energy strategy for the Parliamentary estate.
Public sector decarbonisation
Delivered engineering designs that unlocked significant investment in heat pumps across hospitals, leisure centres and civic buildings.
Local-authority heat networks
Provided design assurance for multi-year build outs serving homes and community assets, with performance and finance both under tight scrutiny.
Fifth generation demonstrators
Engineered core elements of systems using waste heat from transport and data centres to support mixed-tenure housing.
ROOTS AND DIRECTION
Why our roadmap keeps pointing back to heat, place and people.
Generation 7 grew out of work in a mountain community in the Philippines where water, labour and land were treated as one living system. Nothing was wasted. Everything had a relationship.
That experience became a quiet reference point. It showed what it looks like when energy work serves daily life and landscape instead of eroding them. The roadmap on this page is our way of bringing that way of thinking into hospitals, housing, campuses and towns.
- Heat for people, place and planet
- From projects to living systems
- Decisions that still make sense in future generations
If you are responsible for heat, this roadmap is for you.
Whether you are starting with a single block, a hospital, a campus or a whole town, we can help you see the system you already have and shape the next moves so that heat serves the life of your place.
ROADMAP
We design heat so people live well,
estates run calmer and carbon falls.
If you are here, you are probably carrying big responsibilities. Keeping buildings warm without wasting money. Hitting decarbonisation targets without breaking services. Making decisions that still feel sound in twenty years, not just year one.
This roadmap is how we move from scattered projects to heat systems that genuinely work for life on your estate.
WHERE WE ARE WORKING
From single plant rooms to whole places.
Our work starts in the plant rooms and pipe runs that keep buildings alive, then zooms out to the streets, wards and homes those systems serve. We focus on estates where comfort, cost and carbon sit on the same agenda.
The pattern is familiar. Boilers long past their best. Steam that nobody loves but everybody depends on. Controls that only one person really understands. Tariffs set years ago that no longer reflect reality. Everyone working hard and still the system feels brittle.
Where we spend our time
- Acute and community hospitals
- Universities and mixed campuses
- Central and local government estates
- Social housing and communal heat
- Local authority and civic heat networks
This is the gap we work in: between technical possibility and the lived experience of residents, staff and operators.
WHY IT MATTERS NOW
Heat is invisible until it fails – and by then it is expensive.
When heat works, nobody thinks about it. When it fails, everything stops. At the same time, heat is often the single largest source of emissions on an estate and a major driver of operating cost. Getting it right is no longer optional.
Estate emissions
50–80%
For many hospitals, campuses and public estates, heat and power together account for most operational emissions. Any credible plan runs through heat.
System risk
24 / 7
Ageing kit, opaque controls and fragmented responsibility leave estates exposed. Without a shared map of how heat flows, risk multiplies quietly in the background.
Decision horizon
20–40 yrs
Choices on plant, networks and fabric set the pattern for comfort, cost and carbon for decades. Each project is a chance to redesign that future or repeat the past.
HOW THE ROADMAP WORKS
From better briefs to living heat networks.
We do not start with technology. We start with the life around it: patients, staff, residents, operators, budgets and carbon limits. Then we design heat flows that respect all of them. The roadmap below is how that takes shape across an estate.
Today
Stabilise what you already have
Understand how heat is really moving. Fix the worst leaks in comfort, money and emissions. Give operators clearer levers and better information.
Next
Design projects that actually work
Shape new plant, heat pumps and networks that fit the fabric of the estate and the way people use it. Align briefs, funding and phasing with how work happens on the ground.
Beyond
Turn heat into a shared asset
Join individual projects into one heat story for your estate or town. Use each win to change how you plan, procure and manage energy so systems behave more like civic infrastructure than a cost line.
THE PRACTICAL PATH
A clear sequence from first questions to live systems.
Drag sideways on mobile to follow the path.
01
See the whole estate
We make the invisible system visible. Mapping plant, pipework, controls, data and pain points into one clear picture everyone can understand.
- Whole estate heat map connecting kit and places.
- Simple language for risk, comfort and performance.
- Shared view of what must not fail and what can flex.
02
Shape better briefs
We turn that picture into sharp, workable briefs and pathways. Funding cases, scopes and phasing that line up engineering, finance and day to day operations.
- Heat decarbonisation pathways with real costs.
- Briefs that explain the why as clearly as the what.
- Phasing that respects disruption and resilience.
03
Design for life in use
We move into detailed design and assurance. Every line on a drawing is treated as an assumption about someone’s day.
- Design and review of low temperature networks.
- Checks that comfort and maintenance are built in.
- Support through procurement so intent survives delivery.
04
Turn estates into learning systems
Once systems are live, we help you learn from data and lived experience so each project improves the next.
- Performance reviews grounded in what it feels like.
- Simple tools so your team can keep improving.
- Stories that help others across your organisation see what is possible.
WHY WE THINK THIS WAY
A lesson from a mountain village that still guides our work.
Generation 7 grew out of a small hydropower project in a highland community in the Philippines. The engineering challenge was real, but the lesson that stayed was human. Heat, water, labour and care were all part of one living system. Nothing was wasted. Everything was in relationship.
Hospitals and campuses can feel a long way from that hillside, yet the principle is the same. Design in isolation and you create hidden costs. Design with the whole system in mind and you create value that lasts across people, budgets and the wider place.
WORKING TOGETHER
Your estate, your constraints, our job.
Every estate we meet has its own history, pressures and politics. Our job is to respect that reality while opening up more possibility. We bring engineering depth, curiosity and a habit of asking simple questions until the real picture is clear.
Seeing clearly
Sometimes the work is a strategic heat roadmap. Sometimes it is a day in plant rooms to understand why a network never behaves as the model says.
Designing what holds
Sometimes it is design assurance on a major programme, making sure drawings, controls and hydraulics line up with how sites are really run.
Turning wins into patterns
In every case the aim is the same: leave you with more clarity, more options and systems that feel easier to live and work with.
If you are responsible for heat, this roadmap is for you.
Whether you are looking at a single site or a whole estate, we can help you see where to start, what to phase and how to turn heat from a constant worry into a quiet asset for the people and places you care about.