Platform spun off a micro-hydro business as a result of exploring the water in London– Why is that achievement not more readily discussed? Is it too functional?
Chris Fremantle, Independent Arts Consultant
Chris Fremantle: I just wanted to offer something up that reinforces that point. I do some work with Platform down in London, the social and ecological arts organisation. They, through their water projects in London exploring the very rivers of London, spun off a micro-hydro business which now employs 20 people and turns over several hundred thousand pounds a year delivering micro-renewable solutions to homes and schools and businesses in London. I keep saying why don’t we talk about that more? That’s a remarkable achievement for a small arts organisation. I don’t know whether it isn’t trumpeted around more because of that instinct that, maybe, it is too functional; it is not oblique enough.
Grant Kester: Yes and no. That is a really interesting example. I knew about that project. But, you see, I never heard that the turbine was replicated.
Chris Fremantle: It starts with the idea that you can take a third-world micro-turbine and use it in the first world in London to create energy to run a music room in a school. It spins off into business.
Grant Kester: That’s interesting, yes.
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