Roundtable Discussion on Business Growth Opportunities from the Green Economy
Built environment, Energy and Transport
The Break out Session on Built environment, Energy and Transport was facilitated by Prof Peter Garside and focused on good practice examples from elsewhere and skills and job opportunities created from the transition to a green economy.
Dr Maria Brucoli from EDF Energy and a Kingston resident talked about CommUNITY. A trial involving the development of a local energy market in Brixton based on peer to peer transactions. A commercial scheme, which has been created allows the residents of a Council owned building to access the solar energy generated by the PVs installed in the roof of the building and through the use of an App they can do what they want to with the energy allocated to them. They can use it or they can donate it to neighbours. A community battery, which is part of the scheme, provides flexibility. The scheme could easily be replicated in Kingston providing that there is the foundation i.e. a partnership, a local community group willing to create an energy commercial scheme. This comment is consistent with Prof Audley Genus' claim that partnerships are vital in acceleration to net zero.
Interesting lessons for Kingston come from the Oxford energy generation scheme, even though the scheme itself would not be appropriate for Kingston due to its large size. Tim Rose, from Pivot Power/EDF Group, who oversees the implementation of the scheme, highlighted the role of partnership led by Oxford Council in development of a model of a smart small energy system in the UK. It involves generation and storage of energy and integration of power, transport and heat. Transitioning from fossil fuels to electricity requires the generation of a significant amount of additional energy to power and heat industries, transport and buildings.
Cargo bikes provide a solution to all the above challenges insisted Ben Knowles, who set up Pedal Me in 2017 and employs 55 staff members. Pedal Me operates on-demand taxi and logistics services across the centre of London. They are 30% faster than motor vehicles and much more efficient at finding parking space. Their main cost is staff time and they produce 65% less CO2 than the cleanest electric vans in terms of manufacturing & usage lifetime. There are two key success factors i.e. special cargo bikes and specialist riders. Even though PedalMe currently operates mainly in central London, they are ready to deliver services in Kingston as well.
High quality training is not only important for the riders. It is paramount for achieving the local, national and global net zero targets. Dr Hasan Haroglu, an academic at Kingston University and Nathan James Van Gambling, who owns the award winning renewable podcast BetaTeach, talked about the importance of green skills in the built environment. The built environment contributes 40% to the UK’s total carbon footprint. Considering the need for retrofit, the increasing demand for housing and keeping abreast of green technologies and innovation to maintain competitiveness, companies need to train their employees. Companies have to invest in jobs to restore the environment and jobs to fight climate change, said Hasan, and Nathan highlighted that businesses need to go beyond a tick box exercise. Another suggestion was that the gap between qualifications and actual skills needs to close; the best way to learn is on the job but you need good employers to start with, otherwise you perpetuate the problem. Some of the emerging businesses are focussing on monitoring and performance e.g. monitoring heat loss of buildings. Again, working in partnership and focusing on local solutions is the way forward if we want to reduce carbon footprint. Built environment is complex and needs engineers with diverse skills and a broad understanding of how the built environment functions. Regulation is complex also.