EVENT
Cornwall develops its environmenal advantages
Environmental firms in Cornwall will showcase their services at a new, purpose built “e-den dome” in London.
Set up by InvestinCornwall, it will create an interactive space to showcase the region’s expertise and reinforce the role the county can play in achieving the UK’s renewable energy objective. An evening event on 18 May will give businesses the opportuni- ty to hear why now is a great time to relocate to the county. Access to exceptional environ- mental expertise and natural resources has seen a plethora of renewable energy companies’ start-up in, or relocate to, the county. With £712M of EU money for economic develop- ment, a business-ready infrastruc- ture, attractive lifestyle and rich talent pool Cornwall is a benefi- cial location for business. The county also has the highest levels of solar radiation in the UK, and abundant resources in wind, ocean and geothermal.
Cornwall has been at the fore- front of renewable technology for some time. The UK’s first wind farm was sited at Delobole, in 1991, and the world-renowned Camborne School of Mines
SECTOR PROFILE
UN report claims cows cause less emissions
New figures from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation show a more accu- rate picture of greenhouse gas emissions from dairy products. Scientists at the FAO found that dairy is responsible for only 2.7% of global man-made emissions. The report’s findings mean that dairy cows are not environmental villains, backing up a recent study that found the cows are responsi- ble for just 1.2% of UK emissions. Dairy UK Director General Jim Begg welcomed the new
study. “This high-level report from the FAO has been two years in the making and at last sheds light on the true impact of dairy farming on the environment. “In producing some of the
nation’s most popular and nutri- tious foods, dairy cows, milk tankers and dairies emit less than 2.7% of the world’s greenhouse gases. Of course, we’re still work- ing to lower that figure, but the report shows that the industry’s critics are the ones really produc- ing hot air.”
THE
INNOVATION DIFFUSION
COLUMN
WITH SONNY MASERO
Find a new way to connect with your customers
The Eden Project is developing the UK’s first Green Talent programme on renewable energy
(CSM) produced the UK’s first degree course in renewable energy. The Eden Project is now working on the UK’s first Green Talent programme, which will explore the potential that renew- able energy can bring. Planning has also commenced for the UK’s first eco-town to be located in the county.
This year work will commence on the world’s first large-scale wave device test centre, ten miles off the Cornish coast near Hayle. The £41M Wave Hub project has been developed by the South West Regional Development Agency and will be the UK’s first offshore facility to demonstrate arrays of wave-energy generation devices. For more details, go to
www.investincornwall.com.
It was my old friend Ed who introduced me to the Wales- based sports clothing company called Howies. That was about six years ago and I have just been trying to find one of their early collectable catalogues to remind myself of the fun slogans they were printing on T-shirts to make you think about this brilliant old world that we live in. That’s how it started: with a
shared joke from a slogan on a T-shirt. I can’t remember which image it was that raised a chuck- le or whether it was a one-liner like “work hard, canoe home” or “buy land, they don’t make it anymore”. But the point is that Howies makes sustainability fun and the fun makes you want to come back for more. You also want to share this new discovery with your friends. This means that they have had a steadily increasing community of loyal customers that appreciate the challenges and successes they have had in delivering high-qual- ity, sustainably sourced clothing, designed for modern sports. This approach to building brand loyalty is more personal than loyalty card schemes. Once, they bought an old Transit van, painted it with black- board paint and toured around their home country letting peo- ple graffitti on the van. This con- nection with place is important for the Howies team and was extended to Argentina in the lat- est catalogue where they visited a Welsh community there and got the local cowboys to wear the latest clothes. The stories that Howies tells are also con- nected to the items of clothing and their source; that is, Merino sheep from New Zealand, manu-
facturers in China and Ventile cotton used by Sir Edmund Hillary for his climb of Everest. Howies, like Innocent drinks, has successfully engaged with its customers over the last decade, and have been courted by cor- porate suitors like Timberland and Coca-Cola, respectively. Selling stakes to these large firms has resulted in a backlash from some customers and it remains to be seen how their customer communities evolve. In the corporate world there is a trend to use new social media to engage customers on sustain- ability. M&S has launched Plan A TV, encouraging customers to share content with their friends on Facebook and Twitter. The rapid growth of social media sites offers new opportu- nities for creating successful vir- tual customer communities for sustainable businesses. In our globalised world we have to utilise these methods of commu- nication for sustainability. Good quality content and ease of use are key for successful network campaigns. Combined with the immediacy of smart phones and the ability to connect and visu- alise information in new ways (see
visualcomplexity.com), social networks should be game- changing in their reach to dis- tributed communities. Howies’ innovative approach to the mar- ket has provided an inspirational hand-me-down for future social entrepeneurs. This approach now needs to be tailored for the Google generation.
Sonny Masero is VP for CA ecoSoftware in EMEA. Opinions expressed in this column are based on his personal views
BRIEFS FAST FOOD CHAIN MCDONALD’S CUT ITS ENERGY USE BY 4.5% BETWEEN 2007 AND 2009 – EQUATING TO OVER 14% CARBON REDUCTION PER £ SALES
Sustainab le Business ❘ May 2010 7
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