Gravity’s Programme Director, Paul Lowndes, was the guest speaker at the October edition of Sedgemoor FM’s Business Breakfast series. Paul introduced Gravity, highlighting its unique site features and discussing the regional context that shapes its vision for the future.
He also covered Gravity’s successful material management strategy, which has avoided the discharge of 25 million tonnes of carbon up to the end of August 2023. Additionally, Paul emphasised key project milestones and the importance of Gravity’s community partnerships with local stakeholders.
Reflecting on the event, Paul commented: “I want to thank Sedgemoor FM for the kind invitation to present at what is a growing network of like-minded businesses. It was fantastic to see a room full of genuinely engaged people eager to learn more about the opportunities emerging in the area where they live and work.”
Learn more about Sedgemoor FM Business networking events here.
Martin Bellamy, This is Gravity Chairman and CEO shared his insights into Somerset’s growth opportunities resulting from the development of the UK’s largest Gigafactory at the Gravity Smart Campus.
The event was set up for regional businesses to share their insights on the opportunities and challenges for businesses of all sizes in the region and what role SMEs will play in the wider opportunities linked to Hinkley Point and Gravity.
Martin Bellamy discussing on-site works at Gravity: “Works have been ongoing at Gravity since 2019 but have accelerated as a result of the Agratas site purchase, confirmed in early 2024. Major milestones in the development of the gigafactory include the LDO submission for Building 1 and the appointment of Sir Robert McAlpine as the primary contractor. The Gravity site by spring 2025 will begin to transform with the building programme of the gigafactory”.
It was noted by Martin that the opportunities that will result from an automotive manufacturer basing themselves in Somerset instead of the midlands will have a real economic impact along the M5 corridor.
Martin Bellamy reflected on market trends, with major technology companies in the emerging AI sector that could not be ignored in terms of securing future site occupiers, that would sit alongside the gigafactory, furthering the vision of a true ‘smart campus’.
Representatives from Gravity joined the well-attended celebrations at the McMillan Theatre in Bridgwater for the 2024 Pride of Somerset Youth Awards. Claire Pearce and Robert Stevens presented the ‘Environmental’ and ‘Community Hero’ awards respectively.
Claire Pearce presented the ‘Environmental’ award to Daniel, for his exceptional contributions to cryptozoology and nature. He showcased immense passion and meticulous research in the field. His charity work encourages young people to explore nature. Daniel’s achievements include a successful podcast, a published book, teaching an online science class for Autistic teenagers, and a feature in the national press.
Claire Pearce presenting the Environmental Award Robert Stevens presenting the Community Hero awardAndy Berry Claire Pearce
Claire Pearce, reflecting on the evening: “Gravity was proud to support and this event, which celebrates and promotes the inspirational young people across Somerset. Our team would like to thank everyone involved for contributing to such a wonderful ceremony.”
Passion for Somerset CIC CEO & Founder, Nigel Muers-Raby, commented: “Gravity’s very generous sponsorship of the Pride of Somerset Youth Awards enabled us to recognise and reward some truly remarkable young people whose stories were both inspirational and heart-warming”.
About the Awards
The Pride of Somerset Youth Awards 2024 is proud to work with a collection of fantastic partners that make this possible. With 10 awards categories in total, each sponsor has selected an award that they are passionate about and can advocate for.
Art & Culture Award | Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Taunton
Care Award | Sponsored by the Somerset County Gazette
Championing Positive Mental Health Award | Sponsored by Bounce Forward
Charity / Volunteer Hero | Sponsored by Young Somerset
Community Hero | Sponsored by Bridgwater United Community Sports Trust
Environmental Award | Sponsored by This is Gravity
Outstanding Courage Award | Sponsored by Somerset Larder
Sandy Padgett Award | Sponsored by Avon & Somerset Police
Sporting Achievement Award | Sponsored by Passion of Somerset
Young Person of Year Award | Sponsored by Bridgwater & Taunton College
Notes to Editors
For more information, please contact prideofsomersetyouthawards@gmail.com or call 01278 441216.
In a vibrant celebration of innovation and business excellence, the Somerset Business Awards 2024, organised by the Somerset Chamber of Commerce, showcased the remarkable achievements of local enterprises. With almost two decades of history, the awards have become a cornerstone event, recognising the resilience, creativity, and sustainable practices that define Somerset’s business landscape. This is Gravity’s Programme Director, Paul Lowndes, was in attendance, underscoring the event’s importance in fostering a thriving business community in Somerset
At the grand final Lendology CIC scooped the Gravity sponsored ‘Environmental and Sustainability Award’.
This is Gravity’s Programme Director, Paul Lowndes, commented: “Across Gravity’s four years of sponsorship we have noticed a ratcheting up of the submission standards, with this award clearly inspiring the efforts of Somerset’s environmentally conscious businesses. Lendology CIC were awarded the Environmental & Sustainability Award for their demonstrable commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainable finance. I have huge respect for Cookswood Development – Lomax Design and Build and Zebra EM, both worthy finalists and most unfortunate to come up against Lendology CIC.
Lendology CIC commented: “This recognition means the world to us at Lendology CIC, as it underscores our commitment to supporting homeowners to invest in their properties to become greener and more sustainable through our partnerships with local councils.”
Somerset Chamber Chief Executive, Emma Rawlings, said: “We know many have faced some extremely challenging trading conditions again this last 12 months, so it was encouraging to hear about the successes of our finalists and winners and to be able to help them celebrate through the awards.”
Learn more about Lendology CIC by visiting their website.
What an achievement! #SBA2024 the Environmental and Sustainability Award goes to Lendology CIC @lendologycic. Congratulations to runners-up Cookswood Development – Lomax Design and Build @CookswoodEstate and Zebra EM for their amazing entries! Kindly sponsored by Gravity Smart… pic.twitter.com/lxzxG6D5sP
— Somerset Business Awards, UK (@Somerset_Awards) March 22, 2024
About Gravity
Gravity is the UK’s first strategic commercial smart campus and a blueprint for a ‘cleaner’, smarter future. Anchored by the 40Gwh Agratas Gigafactory, the campus is now the catalyst for economic transformation across the South West. Delivering the Gravity campus will support the wider efforts towards transport decarbonisation as well as the UK’s acceleration progress on electrification.
Our site is at the heart of an ideal ecosystem and is the platform of choice to stimulate home-grown advanced battery manufacturing, it offers unrivalled connectivity, planning flexibility and access to world-class assets and talent pool with expertise in innovation and clean growth. Underpinning the ability to serve a multitude of customers across sectors in the transition to a net zero economy.
This is Gravity’s Director – Planning & Economic Development, Claire Pearce, will be joining the Talking Economics: Brunel’s Vision for 2050 panel discussion, part of the wider Festival of Economics hosted by Bristol Ideas between 13th-16th November.
The annual Festival of Economics now entering its 12th year brings together economists and experts from around the world to debate – both with one and other and their audiences – on some of the key economic questions of our time.
Claire will be joining an esteemed panel including Dr Chris Colvin, an expert on economic history and the interwar economy; Barra Mac Ruairi, Chief Property Officer at the University of Bristol; Zoe Metcalfe, Client Director at Atkins Global, and Co-Founder, Ethos Wilder; and Ed Conway, Economics and Data Editor for Sky News.
The panel will discuss the infrastructure needs of Bristol and the wider county, how these should be funded and what governments should prioritise – whether that be transport links, digital networks or building communities.
This is Gravity is proud to have sponsored and attended the first edition of the Bridgwater Business Expo, hosted in partnership between Bridgwater Chamber of Commerce and Bridgwater Town Council on Friday 9th June.
The event was a new platform designed to bring together potential customers and partners, to showcase local products and services and generate business opportunities within the community.
Gravity sponsored the workshops and seminar sessions that took place throughout the event, which covered diverse topics from digital marketing and international trade to cyber security and sustainable business practices.
Gravity Programme Director, Paul Lowndes, joined the first-panel session of the day ‘Booming Bridgwater: Growth opportunities for Bridgwater Businesses’, where he discussed the scale of opportunities that would become available once Gravity secures a large-scale advanced manufacturing operator. Gravity, the 616-acre site located adjacent to J23 M5 near Bridgwater is anticipated to create up to 7,500 jobs on-site and more throughout the wider supply chain.
Paul Lowndes, reflecting upon the event, shared:“The Bridgwater Business Expo’s successful debut was a tremendous occasion, and I am grateful to those who welcomed Gravity to partake in this significant event. Local businesses have always been integral to our vision. As we continue developing the site, we encourage local businesses to express their interest in joining our supply chain through a dedicated form available on our website. I eagerly anticipate the prospects that the next Bridgwater Business Expo will bring.”
Gravity will be the UK’s first commercial smart campus and a blueprint for a ‘cleaner’, smarter future. It aims to attract the world’s most innovative companies working in the ‘clean growth’ sectors.
Expected to create up to 7,500 jobs, the 616-acre Enterprise Zone will be designed to shape connections between people and the places in which they work, supporting a culture of innovation and wellbeing. It will include diverse, flexible workspaces and resilient technologies along with enhanced transport links to, and within, the surrounding area.
Gravity Programme Director, Paul Lowndes, was in attendance at the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) South West Awards 2023, hosted on March 1st in Western-Super-Mare.
The awards recognise and celebrate the best and brightest businesses within the region, for the second year running Gravity Smart Campus has sponsored, judged, and awarded the region’s FSB ‘Sustainability Award’.
Paul Lowndes was tasked with judging for the ‘Sustainability Award’, this year he decided to award it to ‘Feritech Limited, a Cornwall-based engineering and technology company for their holistic approach to the development of their £3m purpose-built Innovation Center.
Paul Lowdnes, Gravity Progarmme Director comments:
The entries received for the FSB Sustainability Award were all of a high standard. However, the Feritech entry was the most comprehensive. They have taken a radical approach to environmental sustainability in their new £3m purpose-built facility including rainwater harvesting, solar roof and battery storage, air source heat pumps, tree planting and many other initiatives.
They have also started to create a woodland area for their local community. In addition, they have seen significant business growth and expanded their team, including an apprentice scheme to “grow their own” engineers.Also, their commitment to sharing .25% of turnover to help fund local community and school projects is exemplary.
Feritech will proceed to represent the South West in the national final of these awards.
Claire Pearce, Director of Planning & Economic Development at Gravity, chaired the Regeneration and Investment showcase session at the recent Western Gateway Development Conference hybrid event.
Claire was joined by a diverse panel:
Cllr Tom Renhard, Cabinet Member for Housing Delivery and Homes, Bristol City Council;
Wendy Maden, Principal Urban Designer, Bath & North East Somerset Council; and
Michael Coe, Commercial Director, Bristol Zoological Society.
The session outlined large scale regeneration projects across the Western Gateway and wider region, drawing on the challenges, opportunities and lessons learnt from the progress so far including creating the conditions for investment, the importance of leadership, creating solutions as well as embedding culture and community considerations.
Claire reflected on the session and the wider conference, “It’s fantastic to be back in person talking about these important aspects of key transformational developments and learning from each other’s experiences. Strategic projects such as the Gravity Smart Campus near Bridgwater fall into a unique category, where its success in securing a world class advanced manufacturing facility will deliver a huge economic uplift to the region.
Gravity Smart Campus is proud to have partnered with Bridgwater United FC and Community Sports Trust in launching the Gravity Sphero provision using Sphero Sports Robots, an innovative STEM education tool.
The launch event which was well attended by local schools, learning trusts, local and county councillors, charitable organisations, and local media who heard on the significant importance of this project from guest speakers Martin Bellamy (Chairman and CEO of Gravity), Andy Berry (Principal of Bridgwater & Taunton College), Adam Murry (CEO of BUFC) and Matt Mead (Sphero Sports).
Gravity Sphero launch attendees getting to grips with the technology
Gravity’s commitment to our Clean & Inclusive Growth, stimulating transformational change and enabling a new era of clean growth to create opportunities for local communities and business, is core to the success of the development.
Through implementing our Environmental and Social Governance policy, the Gravity team are focused on creating social value locally. The Gravity Sphero project launch marks the next step in our work, offering an innovative way for children and young people in the local area to learn coding and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) skills, supporting the delivery of the national curriculum
Uniting Football, Robotics and Educational STEM activities, inspires hands-on fun learning through practical football-based coding games with interactive and engaging programming activities, to teach key transferable and digital skills, already enjoyed by 40,000 educators and 3.5 million users worldwide.
Gravity and Bridgwater United Community Sports Trust have formed a partnership to give schools and young people the chance to join this fantastic and engaging movement.
Claire Pearce, Director for Planning and Economic Development at Gravity commented “The Gravity team is focused on generating genuine social value to make a real difference localy, supporting young people to strengthen personal resilience and inspiring them about future careers.
Looking ahead, the campus will host high-tech companies and new jobs so we must look ahead to how we can build a local talent pipeline to access those opportunities. We therefore need to promote STEM to help prepare students for the opportunities ahead and to provide them with the tools and skills to thrive and succeed.
We are delighted to support the Gravity sphero project and launch a new learning through play initiative with Bridgwater United Community Sports Trust. This is an important step towards growing a local workforce at Gravity – with our young people at its heart”
Commenting on this partnership Sarah Murry, Bridgwater United CST added “Since our first meeting with Gravity they have been a great supporter of the Trust as our visions for community partnership completely align. The synergy between the two organisations is very strong and we are delighted that with their support we can revolutionise the STEM education and play offering to children and young people in Bridgwater.”
Gravity is proud to enable Bridgwater United FC to become the only UK Non-League football club and the only club in the South-West Region to offer this innovative STEM programme.
This exciting new project, combines innovative technologies and sport to combat the recognised international shortage of STEM skills and young people going into STEM Careers – the STEM Gap.
Gravity Programme Director, Paul Lowndes, was in attendance at the Somerset Business Awards 2022 finale organised by the Somerset Chamber of Commerce. The awards sought to recognise and celebrate the best of business within Somerset.
Paul Lowdnes was tasked with judging for the ‘Environmental Achievement Award’ for the second consecutive year, this year he decided to award it to ‘Talick Group’ for their holistic impact towards net-zero efforts. Paul was impressed by all the finalists.
Images from the Somerset Business Awards 2022 Grand Finale
It was a tough task to judge – three very competent and hugely impressive finalists. Talick Group was a first amongst equals! Huge respect for New Leaf Design and Somerlap, both worthy finalists and most unfortunate to come up against Talick who “won by a short nose” on the strength of their all round impact in driving progress in the green economy as a whole.
I’m already looking forward to see what the region can do next year. .
Paul Lowndes, Gravity Programme Director
I am extremely proud of our county’s businesses; we were all blown away by the quality of the entries and what Somerset’s businesses are achieving and producing.
“It was fantastic to be able to honour winners and finalists from all corners of the county and from a wide range of sectors and industries. Thank you to everyone who entered the awards and thank you to our judges and sponsors who continue to make these the biggest and best business awards in Somerset.”
Emma Rawlings, Executive Director of Somerset Chamber of Commerce
