Welcome

Even in Aberdeen the spring is starting slowly to arrive and daylight hours are creeping up. It is a busy time for this oil and gas port with plenty of activity despite the apparent transition to net zero! Indeed in the short term there seems a surge in activity and new projects starting. One wonders when as opposed to sucking it all out of the ground we will be pushing carbon into the ground!

I have to thank our past Board and Lee Barber, our past Chairman, for handing over the Association in such good shape with plenty of activity and progress being made in so many areas. Thank you to all outgoing Board members who gave their time so willingly and to the members of our current board who have committed to the Association’s continuing journey.

I am enjoying the Sustainability Series, thanks to the contributors for a great kick off. This topic seem to be top of most businesses agenda and there is no doubt that we can all do our bit. Someone said to me why bother when there is a war in Ukraine, oil and gas price fluctuations like we have not seen since the Gulf Wars in the last century, earthquakes in Turkey and Syria and famines in Africa. There is no easy answer to this. We have been taking more out of the world’s resources than the world can produce and so we are in deficit and the only way to address that is to act more sustainably. Personally my family is doing its bit in the way we live, buy and travel. My business is purchasing with sustainability in mind and we are look continually to deliver our operations in more sustainable ways that we have ever done. We will get there in lots of little step changes and if we all do that we will see progress globally.

There are a lot of face to face events coming up and I hope to get to some of them. It great that members are meeting together as that networking does bring so much more than a Zoom/Teams meeting. The events plan is pretty business, so do support what you can!

Mark Shepherd, Chairman of UK and Ireland Spill Association