BUSINESS NEWS
New patrons give more power to the Chamber
Birmingham Chamber now has 30 patron companies, representing some of the biggest and most influential businesses in the city and beyond. E.ON and National Express are the latest iconic names to join this exclusive partnership with the Chamber.
Help to be energy fit
E.ON, one of the UK’s leading power and gas companies employing around 12,000, has become a patron of Birmingham Chamber. The firm will work closely with the Chamber to promote sustainability
across business, commerce and transport as well as in homes. E.ON, which generates electricity, and retails power and gas, is part of
the E.ON group, one of the world's largest investor-owned power and gas companies. It employs more than 85,000 people worldwide. E.ON’s Energy Solutions business supplies power and gas to more than
five million domestic, small and medium-sized enterprise and industrial customers across the country and also offers innovative energy services and technologies tailored to meet its customers’ needs. The business aims to help customers become ‘energy fit’ by encouraging
them to insulate their homes, moderate their energy usage and to generate their own power through microgeneration systems such as ground source heat pumps and solar panels for both homes and businesses. Don Leiper, director of new business at E.ON, said: “Birmingham has
already laid out extremely ambitious environmental targets – cutting carbon pollution by 60 per cent in the next 15 years – but through partnerships between the public and private sector we hope to help deliver the skills, knowledge and investment needed to make Birmingham a truly low carbon city. "I’m delighted to be joining the Chamber's patron scheme. We’re a Midlands-based company working closely across the city to promote sustainability in business, housing and transport and we hope the Chamber and its members will help make this vision a reality. “From a business point of view there are enormous pressures to increase efficiency and reduce overall operational costs. Businesses ought to be looking to implement efficiency measures to reduce consumption and costs but sustainable energy technologies also offer a way for organisations to meet their government-enforced environmental targets. “A lot of what we’re doing starts with simple energy efficiency measures, helping people to use less and hopefully spend less on their bills – what we call being energy fit. But if we’re to meet those 2026 targets no one can do it alone; we have to work in partnership.” Chamber chief executive Jerry Blackett said: “It is a tremendous asset to
Don Leiper
have a company like E.ON working closely with the Chamber, its other patrons and members. They can provide valuable service and advice that are vital to the economic and social wellbeing of businesses.” E.ON is one of only 41 UK companies to be awarded the CommunityMark – a national standard of excellence in community investment.
For more information on saving energy visit:
www.eonenergyfit.com,
www.facebook.com/eonenergyfit
CHAMBER PATRONS
Andrew Cleaves Making a connection
One of Birmingham’s biggest employers, National Express, has become a patron of Birmingham Chamber. The group’s global headquarters are based at
the new Digbeth Coach Station in Birmingham and are the biggest private sector employer in Birmingham with more than 5,400 personnel. National Express Group is a leading public transport operator delivering
services in the UK, North America and Spain. Every year more than 700 million journeys are made on their services. Chamber chief executive Jerry Blackett said: “We are tremendously proud
to have National Express as a patron at the Chamber. We will work with the company to underline the importance of transport to the local economy.” Andrew Cleaves, managing director of the National Express UK Coach
business, said: “We are delighted to become a patron of the Chamber. With our global headquarters in Digbeth, and as one of the region’s largest employers, we are proudly rooted in the West Midlands.” In the West Midlands, National Express is the market leader in the UK’s
largest urban bus network outside London. It also runs bus services in Coventry and Dundee and operate the Midland Metro.
• National Express is the largest operator of scheduled coach services in the UK, with high frequency services linking around 1,000 destinations;
• It also operates two rail franchises in the UK. c2c serves destinations between London and South Essex, and National Express East Anglia serves routes out of London and across Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire;
• In Spain, ALSA is the largest private operator of public transport. It operates bus and coach services across Spain and in Morocco;
• In North America the group is the second largest student transportation company, operating in 30 US states and two Canadian provinces.
Any companies wishing to know more about Chamber patronage should call 0121 607 0809; email
patronage@birmingham-chamber.com; or visit
www.birmingham-chamber.com/patrons
OCTOBER 2011 CHAMBERLINK 7
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