It is to sponsor two Fellowships with the Saltire Foundation, an organisation which seeks out and nurtures Scotland's next generation of business leaders, in a move to bring fresh insights into the global potential for domestically-based eco and energy efficient house builders.
As well as helping towards Government targets for eliminating fuel poverty by 2016, it is hoped that the initiative will encourage Scottish companies who have developed innovative green technologies to expand into a wider market in the rest of the UK and internationally.
Housing Minister Keith Brown said:
"The Saltire Fellowships are a world class initiative combining the best of business teaching with very practical experience.
"This is an excellent opportunity to work with them towards the common purpose of helping Scottish companies to create a vibrant, low carbon house-building sector which will create jobs and stimulate wider economic growth."
National Records of Scotland forecast that 450,000 new homes will be needed in Scotland by 2033. This is a huge opportunity for innovation and investment and more energy efficient housing that can help reduce energy bills with some savings, against comparable housing, of up to £1000 per year.
The two Fellows - who are embarking on an intensive eight month programme, including study at internationally-acclaimed entrepreneurial business school Babson College in Boston and a three month commercial project with a Scottish company - are Mike Brooke and Craig Findlay.
Mike, who lives in Glasgow and has held a number of senior design and marketing communications positions and Craig, also from Glasgow, who has a strong accountancy background, will be sponsored to the tune of £70,000
They will work with CCG, the Cambuslang-based construction group which has gained an enviable reputation for its sustainable building principles in both the public and private sector, and Springfield Properties, the Elgin and Larbert-based family building firm.
CCG, which has the technical and intellectual capital to deliver innovative solutions through its newly established IQ-Lab, will be looking to the Saltire Fellow to help create a strategy to position and market its products more effectively.
Springfield Properties, which has developed a build system to deliver highly energy efficient homes, is asking its Fellow to find new ways to bring these technologies to market profitably and to stimulate consumer enthusiasm.
Sandy Kennedy, chief executive of the Saltire Foundation, said: "The involvement of Saltire Fellows in such an important sector is an excellent example of the Scottish Government becoming entrepreneurial in its own right.
"It demonstrates that government does not necessarily have to do everything itself, but can be more effective by enabling professionals within different sectors to help achieve mutually desirable aims."
The initiative to involve Saltire Fellows grew out of a recognition in The Scottish Government of the global potential of Scotland's sustainable housing private sector which has developed technologies designed to not only to meet current specifications but to anticipate future regulation - effectively futureproofing the build.
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