THE BIG INTERVIEW STEFF GOES DIGITAL


Having developed sustainable communities in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire villages, Steff Wright is now trying to do something similar in the virtual world. Wearing another of his


Creating sustainable communities is becoming an important aspect of Gusto Homes’ developments


The technology takes low-grade heat from 100-


metre depths underground and multiplies it through the pump so it hits higher temperatures once it reaches the house. Steff explains: “The efficiency of this system is about


four-times higher in terms of the energy used to heat the home than that used by the heat pumps. “This basically means the bills will be four-times


lower than usual, and it doesn’t make much difference between summer and winter as the ground temperature only drops by a couple of degrees.” The homes in both Collingham and the Woodlands


Edge site, in North Carlton, are designed in-house by Gusto Group architecture practice subsidiary Studio-G Associates LLP and built to Passivhaus standard, which represents high energy efficiency. Prices start at £340,000 for two-beds in both


developments but savings are made in the longer term due to the energy reduction measures. As well as being equipped with triple glazing, solar


panels and an infrared heating system, heat is recovered from shower waste at Woodlands Edge – cutting hot water demand by 50%. “Electricity costs were practically zero for the people


who moved into the 30 homes that comprised the first phase of this development five years ago,” says Steff, a former chairman of Lincoln City FC. “Many of them would actually earn money from the feed-in tariffs by supplying the grid from their own


power resources, while there’s also a nice regular temperature and cleaner air quality in the house. “It’s a proper community – not just in the energy


generation of the houses, but in the way it’s modelled – and there’s green spaces that are better for people’s mental health and wellbeing.”


TO SOME PEOPLE, the idea of sustainability and pro- environmentalism conjures images of Extinction Rebellion protestors climbing on top of a London Underground train or crowds holding anti-meat placards. Steff admits businesspeople may have negative


perceptions of campaigners in general due to their thirst for disruption but he says it’s time they woke up to the changes already underway. “What people need to understand is that this is


where the market is heading,” he says. “It could be as simple as pivot or die as a business. If you’re going to keep doing what you’ve always done, then you’ll soon become outdated. “But businesses also really need to see this as an opportunity. If you’re an SME, there’s never been a better time to really listen to where the market is going and create a new locally-based ecosystem that will thrive and prosper. “Large plcs will struggle to adapt as easily as the


smaller companies, so SMEs have a massive opportunity to be at the leading edge by creating the products and services for this new era of sustainability.”


SETTING SAIL ON A DIFFERENT BUSINESS PATH


Being at the pulse of the latest technologies led Steff Wright to owning one of the world’s largest sailing dinghy manufacturers. While Gusto Homes and Gusto


Construction employ large numbers of contractors when building at an average of one house per week, Rototek is the largest permanent employer with about 120 staff. Steff took over the Newark-


based rotational moulding company in July 2011 after previously using it as a supplier while installing rainwater harvesting technology at the Millennium Green development in Collingham. He says: “We were bringing in


rainwater harvesting systems from Germany because there was no one in the UK really selling the tanks, so I set up a company to manufacture them, which was eventually sold.


22 business network November 2020


Rototek is one of the world's largest makers of sailing dinghies


making the rainwater tanks, but also sailing dinghies and lots of other products to different sectors. It’s quite an innovative rotational moulding company.” Rototek, whose history


stretches back to 1993, now has a £10m turnover, with factories in Newark and Worksop. Outside the dinghy market, it


also makes components for traffic signs, oil storage tanks and furniture used in both prisons and hospitals. While Steff admits its


“We were a customer of


Rototek, which was expanding at the time and had 40 talented engineers. “It went bust so rather than


watching the company close, I bought it out of administration and was able to save those jobs. “That allowed us to continue


environmental credentials aren’t as strong as in the housebuilding arm of Gusto due to its existence in an energy-intensive sector, it uses the recyclable plastic polyethylene rather than hydrocarbons, along with cleaner materials in making glass fibre and steel. “In that sense, we use a lot less


energy than alternative forms of manufacturing,” he adds.


entrepreneurial hats, he has built a digital conferencing platform to allow communities to meet up online. He has already hosted events including a Newark Business Club meeting on the Collab platform, which was developed by people who had worked on his Global Grad venture – which enables people to study online and volunteer while travelling the world.


‘It’s a game- changing platform for people to come online to trade with each other’


“Because we were involved


with online learning, video conferencing wasn’t anything new to us, so we decided to focus on developing that aspect of our business,” he says. “We’ve created our own digital


events ‘venue’ in which there are different ‘rooms’ for people to enter and speak to others who are in those rooms. “It’s a game-changing


platform for people to come online to trade with each other. It’s similar to Teams or Zoom, but the environment has a completely different feel to it. “We’re moving towards virtual


reality, so people are going to be able to work from wherever they like and still be able to meet up with friends and colleagues. “We’ve built a completely


different ecosystem that could rethink the way we operate in the digital world.” While its potential for


conferencing is clear, Steff says it’s also opened up opportunities for bringing communities closer together during lockdown, as well as helping small businesses to promote themselves locally. Steff explains: “People were


struggling to communicate with each other so we pivoted that technology to focus on starting conversations within very small communities. “Our first one was in


Collingham and we’re looking to roll out more community Collabs, which will be free to use. It’s effectively a digital version of everything else we’re doing. We’re moving that same community- driven model on to a digital platform so people can connect.”


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