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Chamber series helps push business towards a net zero future The Sustainable Business Series was the first Chamber campaign focused on sustainability, delivered in partnership with Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce. The campaign featured free content covering five webinars, a Business Summit, supported by blogs, podcasts and videos over four themed weeks: energy, circular economy, transport and sustainable business management. Marion Plant, chair of CWLEP’s Productivity and Skills Business Group
Preparing for the world of work
About 60,000 students in Coventry and Warwickshire have been prepared for the world of work this year, a major event was told. The Coventry & Warwickshire Careers Hubs, which were launched by The Careers & Enterprise Company, have worked with 81 schools and colleges since they were established in the area in 2019. The Careers Hubs give schools and colleges the chance to link up with employers, training organisations, colleges, universities, and career professionals so that pupils have information about all the options that are available when they leave education and the different career paths they want to pursue. The Coventry & Warwickshire Careers Hubs, which receives funding from Think Higher Coventry and Warwickshire, which is a partnership of local higher and further education providers and local authorities, are supported by the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership. The Coventry & Warwickshire Careers Hubs organised its Celebration Event at Coventry University Technology Park to recognise the work of schools, employers and colleagues who are supporting careers education for young people in the area. Matt Alvarez, Coventry & Warwickshire Careers Hubs lead, said this had been a fantastic opportunity to highlight the impact of its work. He said: “We had originally planned to hold our Celebration Event last year but that had to be cancelled due to the pandemic so this has been our first chance to re-arrange it. “It was a great opportunity to hear about the progress of the Careers Hubs in Coventry and Warwickshire over the last two years as well as meet a large cross-section of employers, stakeholders and influencers that support careers education. “Work experience has been pretty non-existent since Covid-19 began but our virtual events and the materials we have put together for careers education teachers to access to ensure students have as much high-quality information as possible has been really important in making sure young people are aware of the options available to them. “Ensuring young people in our area are ready for the world of work in their chosen path is extremely important for their wellbeing and for employers who are looking to recruit the next generation. “We wanted this event to act as an inspiration and motivation to continue or broaden the support for young people from those responsible for careers education in their schools and colleges in Coventry and Warwickshire so that students can make informed choices about their next steps.” Marion Plant, chair of CWLEP’s Productivity and Skills Business Group, added: “Providing good jobs and levelling-up opportunities is one of the key aspects of CWLEP’s Strategic Reset Framework. “To achieve this we need to make sure young people in Coventry and Warwickshire are armed with information to make informed choices about their careers and providing quality careers education is vital so that they acquire the skills which employers need.”
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Regional support and best practice examples were shared across the themed weeks, including the webinars. The campaign culminated with a Business Summit, featuring keynote speakers Bim Afolami MP and Jo Gilroy, as well as engaging panel discussions on the financial case for sustainability and the role of businesses on net zero. Businesses have been surveyed on their sustainability activity, which will feature in a report of local business sustainability across the two chambers. This will help inform next year’s sustainability activity for the Chamber, including support and lobbying activity to help businesses to navigate their net zero journey. Key advice to businesses from the campaign was to start measuring their environmental impact, creating a strategy, engaging with stakeholders along the process, revaluating progress and taking corrective action and then finally sharing your success with stakeholders. Aston University, Morgan Sindall, Arup and University of Birmingham have sponsored the campaign Patricia Thornley, Director of the Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute at Aston University said, “Aston University are proud to have supported the Chamber as they help businesses move towards a more sustainable future. Our work on COP 26 is charting a path to net zero emissions using EBRI’s expertise on low carbon energy and products; but that will only be achieved if we work together with businesses towards shared climate goals”.
Helen Davis, Director at Arup commented, “We are delighted to have sponsored the Sustainable Business Series. We hope by sharing our expertise in infrastructure and climate resilience, our experiences during our own journey to net zero and our knowledge from making transformational step changes to our region’s energy systems, we have enabled our local business community to begin their own sustainability journey. Leading them to go on and produce tangible economic, environmental, and social benefits, and ultimately build long-term success”. Richard Kirkham, Morgan Sindall Infrastructure’s operations director for the A45 Sprint project said, “Morgan Sindall Infrastructure and the A45 Sprint Team were delighted to be involved in this great campaign. We are proud to have helped the local business community meet the net zero challenge through sharing our learnings on transport decarbonisation and emission reduction targets under our 25% reduction in carbon emissions by 2025. We aim to continue supporting the Chamber on environmental support as it aligns with our business ethos”. Gurmit Kler, Director of Business Engagement, University of Birmingham, said, “Supporting the Chambers’ first sustainable business campaign was a fantastic opportunity to join the
Bim Afolami MP
region’s green business renaissance. Sharing University insights, knowledge and resources in energy week from Birmingham Energy Institute and ATETA showcased the wealth of support and expertise that University of Birmingham can provide to regional businesses progressing towards net zero. The Summit event, joining together businesses and academia as a community on a shared mission, highlighted expertise from our Sustainable Financial Innovation Centre. The campaign plays an important and timely role for businesses in the lead up to COP26, boosting the spirit of sustainability for local industries”.
"Businesses have been surveyed on their sustainability activity, which will feature in a report of local business sustainability across the two chambers. This will help inform next year’s sustainability activity for the Chamber, including support and lobbying activity to help businesses to navigate their net zero journey."
Carbon Neutral Status A Midlands developer has achieved carbon neutral status and is targeting to be net zero by 2036. Deeley Group, which is headquartered in Coventry, has achieved Carbon Neutral status for its reporting period of May 2020 – April 2021 and has been working in partnership with industry experts Carbon Footprint Ltd to put measures in place to achieve net zero by 2036. The family-owned construction and development firm is now in the second year of measuring its carbon footprint. From May 2020 to April 2021, the firm produced 12.1 tonnes of CO2 per £1 million spent and offset the CO2 produced by donating to a wind project in India. The construction and built environment sector is one of the larger producers of emissions, but Deeley Group will be using targets supported by scientific research to drive down its emissions. Deeley Group has already introduced sustainable measures at its headquarters as part of its commitment, including the installation of EV charging points, solar panels, rain water harvesting measures and PIR lighting.
As part of Deeley’s roadmap to net zero, created in partnership with Carbon Footprint Limited, it will be implementing a host of measures over the coming years. This will include introducing electric vehicles across its fleet, installing LED lighting at head office, work to Future Homes standards and providing incentives for staff to use greener transport methods. The UK Government has launched its Net Zero Carbon Procurement policy recently and this requires firms tendering to government and related bodies to annual measure their carbon footprint and reach net zero carbon by 2050. Deeley Group is aiming to reach this target 14 years earlier and will publish its progress annually. Eleanor Deeley, deputy managing director at the Deeley Group, said: “With our targets we will be looking to go above and beyond the latest definition of net zero and will be working in partnership with Carbon Footprint Ltd to reach our objectives. “While we continue to work toward net zero carbon status, we will continue to offset our carbon to ensure we are having a positive impact as soon as possible on the environment during the process.
“It’s important that businesses, regardless of their size, act now and take vital measures to protect the future of our planet. “We will be working closely with our clients to ensure that sustainable practice is being followed at all of our developments and contributing to our ultimate target of being net zero carbon by the time the company celebrates its 100th year. “The target date of 2036 is ambitious but it is a challenge we are ready to meet.” Dr Wendy Buckley, co-founder of Carbon Footprint Ltd, added: “I’m delighted to see Deeley - as a responsible construction business - taking leading steps to achieve net zero carbon emissions way ahead of the UK’s target date of 2050. An example that I hope many other businesses in this sector will take note of and follow.”
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