ENERGY DEBATE IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
PRESENT:
Richard Slater, Lancashire Business View (Chair) Jonathan Backhouse, Backhouse Jones Miranda Barker, Chamber Low Carbon Gemma Cornwall, Viridium Michael Dugdale, Trident Utilities Sarah Hall, Blackpool and Fylde College
Paul O’Brien, The Senator Group Nathan Partington, North Product Design Adam Raw, Burnley College Laura Taylor, Holiday Inn Blackpool Prof Karl Williams, University of Central Lancashire
ZERO OPTIONS AHEAD
We brought our panel of experts to Trident Utilities in Blackpool to discuss the challenges facing the county’s energy sector, including the drive to reach net zero emissions
Where’s the value for Lancashire businesses to decarbonise and to be on a net zero journey?
MB: This is no longer a nice to have. You’re either going to be driven there by cost, or your clientele, your business base, your supply chains are going to make you go there. It’s a huge opportunity for Lancashire in its leading manufacturing and innovation field. There’s a really financially viable sector for us to embrace and get into in leading the tech and service and structure on this.
KW: The value for them is that it starts to encourage local supply chains and that’s a benefit for all businesses. We’re seeing more and more companies looking at how far away their supply chain is. Can we use a business that’s within Lancashire? Can we use a business that’s within 100 miles? If you start to embrace decarbonisation
it allows you to become more local and it’s a big benefit for Lancashire.
JB: There’s been some real successes in Lancashire but for most of the transport sector, notably the haulage and coach sector, electric is not a viable alternative. If you are in a business in Lancashire operating goods vehicles, are you going to plump right now for what’s on the market? You’re not. It’s a third more expensive, at least, to buy an electric version of their trucks.
POB: In the short term we’re pledged to net zero. We’re taking the low-hanging fruit and looking at energy savings. Engaging with the workforce is really key to that. We’ve got our own logistics fleet and lots of different divisions, and it’s important that the group says ‘what we should do’ and ‘let’s get everyone engaged’. Electric vehicles aren’t the answer for the medium and long-distance vehicles. It’s
looking at driver behaviour. Maybe it’s looking at investing in more fuel efficient fleet but not necessarily getting an electric £500,000 wagon. We’ve more than 1,200 people working for us and a lot of them are really engaged. It attracts talent as well.
GC: As well as reducing energy costs, access to funding is a heck of a lot easier and cheaper now through green finance. I do a lot of work with banks on one side, and they’re crying out to give people money who will spend it on green projects. On the other side, you’ve got pension investment funds and you’ve got investors who want to invest in greener funds. They don’t want old properties and are not spending money on property improvement that’s not related to decarbonisation or something that will help with their ESG reporting. So, it’s definitely the finance side of things for my industry.
Continued on Page 22 LANCASHIREBUSINES SV
IEW.CO.UK
21
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74
