We're Not At War. Outrage Is Making Us Better

It feeds a sense of difference, division and the other.

And yet, in the last month, I have witnessed more examples of communal bonding and togetherness - and less of that sense of the other - than I think I’ve witnessed in 30 years of living as an adult.

I’ve witnessed conflict. I’ve witnessed disagreement. I’ve witnessed violence.

But I’ve also spent a lot of time recently around the heating industry, the solar industry, batteries and renewables. And the thing that increasingly strikes me is that these are a set of industries which have far more in common, and far more of a common goal, than perhaps all of you realise.

I visit sites every week.

Sometimes I’m there editorially, asking questions and trying to understand what is happening. Sometimes I’m making films for companies. But wherever I am, I spend my time talking to the people actually doing this stuff: consumers, professionals, designers, manufacturers and installers.

And the thing that unites you all, which you may not realise, is that you are working towards a common goal.

Of course you compete.

Everybody has their interests. Everybody has their differences. Everybody wants to sell their particular solution.

But there is a collegiate atmosphere underneath it all. You see it at shows like InstallerSHOW. I expect I’ll see it again when I head to the NEC for Solar & Storage Live.

There is a common bond.

And it is one of the things that inspires me every day when I get up stupidly early for a shoot to film somebody making a difference, or turn up at a trade show before the doors have even opened because there is a story I want to get.

Because you may not realise it, but you are all really, really inspiring.

You make a difference. You make that change every single day.

I saw it recently while covering Damon Blakemore’s renewable project at All Saints.

Libtek's, Alex Winters turned up on site. Within the space of a two-and-a-half-hour visit, Alex and Damon had talked through a problem, come to a conclusion about a solution and, ultimately, that solution became embedded in the project.

Then the team from Max Fordham turned up.

There was a discussion. A couple of things changed. Somebody realised something could be done a little differently.

And then they made that thing happen.

I see the same thing when I visit Sean Hogan’s sites. Three or four different contractors might turn up to watch his work, ask him questions or understand how he is doing something. He gives them incredible insight.

And they help him too.

Ethan Wadsworth is the same. I visited his sites month after month and watched him stand there and share information.

These aren't people operating inside neat little silos. Some of them could quite easily regard each other as competitors.

Yet, on site, something else happens.

People talk.

They look.

They question.

They share.

They solve problems.

Even manufacturers understand this better than we sometimes give them credit for.

I’ve just completed a factory tour at Stelrad, one of the longest-serving companies in the radiator space. They literally have competitors’ products on their walls.

They want to know what everybody else is doing.

Because competition doesn't necessarily mean hostility.

And maybe that is the myth worth challenging.

We talk endlessly about competing technologies. Heat pumps versus boilers. One heat pump manufacturer versus another. Solar companies, battery companies, radiator manufacturers, installers, designers and consultants all fighting for their piece of the market.

And yes, commercially, they are.

But stand on enough sites and you begin to see something else.

There is an enormous amount of knowledge being passed between people who, on paper, are supposed to be competing with one another.

There is curiosity.

There is generosity.

There is pride in doing something properly.

And there is a shared sense that the built environment needs to change.

As I head towards the Solar and Storage Live show this year, that is the bit I find myself increasingly inspired by.

We are living through a period in which algorithms are very good at showing us how different we are.

Out in the real world, I keep seeing the opposite.

People turning up.

People talking.

People disagreeing.

People changing their minds.

People lending somebody else their expertise.

And then getting on with the job.

Someone said something to me recently that I wish I could correctly attribute as I write this:

We’re all working towards the same goal. We’ve just got different journeys to get there.

That feels about right.

Perhaps the renewable energy transition isn't just a story about technologies.

Perhaps it is also a story about people learning from each other.

And from where I'm standing, usually behind a camera, on another site, far too early in the morning, there is a lot more of that going on than you might think.