22 ENERGY DEBATE
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AR: We’ve got quite a big campus and we’ve increased the solar panels we have. Buildings are running just off heat pumps and smart heating systems. There’s obviously a cost value. Most of the companies we deal with are small and have short-term goals. They’re interested in getting money now – not five or 10 years down the line. Students are being proactive and saying, “Have you any courses on solar panels, on wind turbines?” It’s the first time that I’m aware of that trying to be green and trying to decarbonise is quite high on a lot of people’s agendas.
LT: For us it’s to contribute to the environmental sustainability to make our operations more effective and probably support long-term profitability as well. We’re lucky to be part of an international brand, IHG, who have a ‘Journey to Tomorrow’ which is our net zero programme. They have the Green Energy programme and recommend actions that the hotel can take to be greener. It’s a great initiative.
SH: We’ve gone through a huge journey at the college in terms of solar panels, EV charging points and all the kit. We’ve invested because it’s really key to students and us. There’s some amazing innovation going on in manufacturing, and we can set out a stall to say, ‘We’ve got the green skills, we’ve got the trained workforce’, because we’re setting the scene. If you’re an employer that isn’t embracing that net carbon journey, you’re not going to build supply chains.
MD: We find it difficult to bring experienced people in when we start looking at roles that are carbon-specific. For customers that want to go down the SBTi (Science Based Targets initiative) route, we can get in- depth net zero road maps in place. For the education sector it’s the place to be. You’re
going to be in demand as an individual, and you’ll be getting a higher salary. For the younger generation going into net zero career paths, the world’s their oyster.
NP: I work across 20 different industries. People don’t know that products get designed in London but they get made in Lancashire, and the expertise that we have is incredible. We try to make everything within 50 miles of the customer that we’re designing for, and if I were to draw a 40-mile radius around Manchester, for example, 95 per cent of our clients are within that. I speak to lots of industries, and what it comes down to is culture and profit. You can make far much more money as a business
me to make the decision, then there’s the help you need and it will fall on you from on high. Chamber Low Carbon is government-funded to be free of charge in Lancashire to help you start that decision if you’re a business.
MD: We look at the journey as being about four phases and the first is education. We’ll start with the 1,000 pages of greenhouse gas protocols, distil it down into 20 slides and really engage the leadership team. There’s a perception it’s all too difficult.
KW: There are a lot of proactive companies but we seem to be getting more and more reactive
One wish would be to have an accessible
framework for small businesses to follow. People want to do the right thing and they should be enabled to do the right thing
by decarbonising. There’s mega money to be made, and the reason that we don’t is because of culture.
What are the barriers to starting the decarbonisation journey and what are the solutions?
GC: People want to do the right thing but they don’t know how. Even the government haven’t passed down, ‘This is what we need to be doing and this is how you need to do it’. The lack of understanding is putting so many people off, and they haven’t got time.
MB: I have to decide what is worth doing first. Then there’s the motivation, something to press
companies. They’re only interested in the net zero journey because someone has told them they’ve got to do it. They are holding back until their supply chain has nudged them. They can only see the value in what they’re being nudged to do, not the value of a holistic approach.
JB: Cost is a barrier. If a business can’t make money they’re going to fail, regardless of how much they spend on their green agenda. The other thing is property – some businesses are in properties that are 150 years old. The majority of those businesses are going to feel they’ve been written off because they can’t get an insulation grant because their property is Victorian.
Jonathan Backhouse
Miranda Barker
Gemma Cornwall
Michael Dugdale
Sarah Hall
Paul O’Brien
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