A community-owned wind turbine will be built on land near Bristol to provide renewable energy to thousands of homes. Profits will fund a development plan for Lawrence Weston, including a £1.7m community hub providing training, social support and debt advice. Community team Ambition Lawrence Weston hopes the 492ft (150m) wind turbine will be working by spring 2022. Team member Mark Pepper said: “Our hope is that residents also benefit from lower energy costs.” The wind turbine will be built on Bristol City Council-owned land in Avonmouth and produce enough low-carbon electricity to power 3,500 homes, making CO2 savings of 1,965 tonnes a year, it is claimed. There will also be an on-site Energy Learning Zone for schools and communities to learn about renewable energy. The project has now had secretary of state approval after being granted planning permission by the council in July.

BBC 29th Oct 2020 read more »

Nottingham, UK – 27 October 2020 – ENSEK, the leading software supplier to UK energy providers, is today announcing that 100% renewable power company Good Energy is moving its entire B2B supply business onto ENSEK’s Ignition platform. The move will enhance customer experience and support the launch of new services for Good Energy’s business customers. The partnership is the latest investment from Good Energy into new products to support businesses tackle climate change. Good Energy… Source: RealWire

Fashion giant Primark has signed the UN’s Fashion Charter, committing it to reducing emissions by 30% by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2050.

Primark is one of the world’s largest fashion retailers with 385 stores and more than 70,000 employees 

The Charter covers the business’ absolute emissions footprint, including Scope 3 (indirect) emissions. Primark, like most large fashion firms, has calculated that the majority of its emissions footprint sits within this category.

In the coming months, the retailer will develop a decarbonisation pathway with support from the Science-Based Targets Initiative. Key focus areas will include raw materials, manufacturing, distribution and logistics and stores.

On distribution and logistics, Primark has already begun work to decrease its reliance on air freight. It claims the “vast majority” of its products are sent by road or shipped. Its delivery trucks also have a ‘reverse logistics’ function; drivers collect waste after delivering products, reducing miles travelled for Primark.

On store energy use, Primark established an internal Energy Reduction Group (ERG) in 2015, bringing together operational staff and energy experts. The Group has spearheaded numerous behaviour change campaigns and encouraged investments in more energy-efficient and automated technologies.

As for raw materials, Primark is one of the world’s largest procuring bodies for sustainably certified cotton. It is on track to train 160,000 cotton farmers by 2022, by which point it will have enough of the material to incorporate in 60 million products. It is also working towards commitments on recycled materials and climate data collection across textile supply chains.

It is hoped that the new commitments will accelerate action across these areas and help Primark broaden its focus and collect better data on emissions across the whole value chain. Net-zero laws in the UK, Ireland and EU already bound the business to achieving net-zero stores and logistics in many of its key regions, but the Charter applies to all global operations.

Primark’s director of ethical trade and environmental sustainability Katharine Stewart said the retailer will not need to increase prices to meet the new commitments.

“While we have big ambitions to make our business more sustainable, we also know that even our small changes can make a big difference, simply because of our size,” Stewart added.

Fashioning the climate

The UN Fashion Charter launched in 2018 and has garnered the support of more than 50 businesses, including suppliers and logistics firms as well as designers and retailers. Other signatories of the Charter include H&M Group, Levi Strauss, Kering Group and Inditex – the owner of Zara.

Hugo Boss recently had new emissions targets, created as a result of the Charter, approved by the SBTi. It is striving to reduce operational emissions by 51% by 2030 and supply chain emissions by 30% within the same timeframe.

The global fashion sector is estimated to account for 4-10% of annual emissions, making it a higher emitter than aviation. McKinsey and Global Fashion Agenda have warned that the industry will fail to align with the Paris Agreement without transformational change over the next decade.

Building on the UN’s Charter, Kering moved in 2019 to launch its own industry-wide commitment to tackling climate change – along with issues like plastics waste. Kering’s Fashion Pact binds signatories to set science-based emissions reduction targets in line with a 1.5C trajectory; to remove all single-use plastics from business-to-business and consumer-facing products and services by 2030 and to support new technologies aimed at minimising waterborne microplastic pollution.

To date, the Pact has been signed by more than 50 companies – many of which are also UN Fashion Charter members.

Nonetheless, green groups and activists pushing for a more sustainable fashion industry have been calling for the sector to address two other major issues – the over-consumption of materials and the treatment of workers across the supply chain. Covid-19 has highlighted slow progress on the latter of these issues, with suppliers for major high-street brands reporting non-payment for completed and in-process orders and a lack of support for social distancing measures.

Join the conversation at edie’s Net-Zero Live

There’s less than a fortnight to go until Net-Zero Live 2020. Taking place over three days (November 10-12) in a virtual format, this event includes high-level keynote talks, interactive panel discussions, facilitated networking sessions and educational masterclasses, as well as virtual exhibition booths showcasing the cutting-edge net-zero technologies and services that will shape the decade ahead.

Register now to hear from representatives of Unilever, the Committee on Climate Change, Inter Ikea Group, Unilever and many more. Click here for registration forms and for the agenda. 

Sarah George

UK renewable energy capacity set to double by 2026, when offshore wind will overtake onshore. The UK’s ambitious goal to double its renewable energy capacity by 2030 will be achieved already by 2026, a Rystad Energy analysis shows, spurred by a wave of mostly wind power investments. Total installed capacity of solar and wind power plants will climb to 64 gigawatt (GW) in 2026 from close to 33 GW today, with offshore wind taking over the throne as the country’s biggest green energy source. From 10.5 GW in 2020, installed offshore wind capacity is set to rise to 27.5 GW in 2026, overtaking onshore wind, which will drop to second place with 24.3 GW, up from its current 13.5.

Energy Voice 28th Oct 2020 read more »

Halton Borough Council is celebrating the completion of a new solar farm, set to power the DCBL Stadium Halton. The 1MW site has more than 3,000 PV panels, and will generate around 850,000kWh a year. Of this, around 45% will go to the stadium while the remainder will be exported to the grid. Located on former derelict brownfield land in Widnes, part of the St Michael’s Golf Course site, the solar farm cost approximately £1.2 million and was part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), with the council providing the remainder of the cost.

Solar Power Portal 28th Oct 2020 read more »

UK homeowners without electric vehicles can now sign up to Tesla’s Energy Plan, with the electric car, solar and battery giant having teamed up with Octopus Energy to this week begin offering its flexible energy tariff to homes with solar and energy storage technology. It means households operating solar and batter systems can also now plug into the Tesla’s UK ‘Virtual Power Plant’, joining a network of homes that generate, store and return electricity to the grid at peak times.

Business Green 28th ~Oct 2020 read more »

A variety of energy companies and organisations have written to Ofgem to urge the regulator to make net zero central to the next price controls. In the letter, they argue that RIIO-2 will be a “critical enabler” of net zero, stressing that with at least 40GW of renewables needing to be efficiently connected by 2030 and millions of electric vehicles (EVs) needing to charge easily, the network infrastructure must be ready. As a result, net zero must be at the heart of RIIO-2 “from the start, not as a subsequent ‘uncertainty’” the letter states. The RIIO-2 price controls have already been the subject of fierce debate regarding their impact on net zero. In their scathing responses to Ofgem’s Draft Determinations, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Transmission and ScottishPower Energy Networks (SPEN) branded the proposals as “risking the delivery of net zero” and being “manifestly flawed” respectively.

Current 27th Oct 2020 read more »

edie has launched its latest sector insight report, examining how the hospitality and leisure sector can build back better from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic by focusing on low-carbon strategies as part of a green recovery.

The report features insight on how innovation, collaboration and net-zero will shape a green recovery in the sector

As part of edie’s brand-new Mission Possible: Green Recovery campaign – which supports sustainability, energy and CSR professionals on our collective mission to drive a green recovery across all major industries in the UK – this latest series of reports will explore why a green recovery is so important for the respective industries being analysed; what a green recovery actually looks like for businesses large and small within those industries; and how sustainability and energy professionals can drive a green recovery from within.

The reports have been created in assistance with PHS and uses exclusive results from edie’s green recovery survey of 243 sustainability and energy professionals. This manufacturing report has also been produced with guidance from in-depth discussions with a steering panel of sustainability experts from some of the world’s most respected hospitality and leisure firms in the vanguard of sustainability leadership.

—–DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE—–

This report features the results of that exclusive survey, insight from the steering panel and key boxouts on how collaboration, innovation, net-zero and the COP26 climate conference will shape the confidence of the sector in delivering radical decarbonisation. Importantly, the report highlights how a strong focus on energy innovation within the sector has created the building blocks to deliver a green recovery moving forward.

Additionally, viewpoints from PHS and the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance help set the tone as to why businesses can be optimistic when approaching the green recovery through net-zero targets and new business practices.

In the foreword for the report, the Sustainability Hospitality Association’s trustee Stephen Farrant said: “As we are witnessing the devastating impact of the pandemic on lives and businesses, so we are reminded that we all have a responsibility to ensure that the combined effects of climate and the loss of nature do not have a similar or greater effect. There is a growing realisation that ultimately, we are all subject to the laws of nature and science. A green recovery is therefore the only logical future for the hospitality and leisure industries.

“A green recovery is therefore firmly on the agendas of many leaders and boards – within the industry and beyond. Recognition is growing that we need to build strong foundations for a resilient industry that’s better prepared for future crises, and that actively helps to regenerate the natural systems upon which it depends. Sustainability professionals can start to drive a green recovery from within but, as advocated by the Global Goals, we also need to enhance collaboration between key stakeholders in the value chain, including governments, civil society, the private sector and other strategic partners.”

Click here to access the Mission Possible: Achieving a green recovery for Hospitality and Leisure report.

edie staff

Finance houses join the rush toward supporting the energy transition. Earlier this year, State Street, one of the world’s largest asset managers, threw its support behind a shareholder petition urging Japanese bank Mizuho to disclose more information about how it is aligning its investments with the Paris agreement on climate change. Closer to home, Boston-based State Street joined a shareholder proposal asking JPMorgan to report how it plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with its lending business in alignment with the Paris accord.As banks this year have drawn fire from asset managers — themselves sometimes accused of greenwash — over the risks of inaction, the banks are now putting pressure on giant oil-and-gas companies to accelerate their renewable strategies. The European Central Bank and other regulators are also starting to scrutinise what climate change risks are under-appreciated by banks. For banks, the energy transition is a massive opportunity. Coal, oil and gas account for about 65 per cent of electricity generation, according to a Morgan Stanley report. To comply with the Paris agreement’s goal of limiting man-made global warming to no more than 2 degrees centigrade, $14tn in clean, renewable energy will be needed over the next 30 years. BP, for example, will need to double or even triple its annual wind and solar investments for the next 30 years to meet net-zero carbon emissions targets. European banks are leading the pack globally. In 2018, BBVA, BNP Paribas, ING, Société Générale and Standard Chartered together pledged to steer their portfolios toward the Paris agreement’s goal. The Dutch bank ING, for example, has increased its renewable power generation financing in 2019 while reducing its exposure to coal power plants by 22 per cent. As a result, renewables accounted for 59 per cent of power generation lending outstanding at the bank at the end of last year.

FT 27th Oct 2020 read more »

Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has said the country will become carbon neutral by 2050, heralding a bolder approach to tackling the climate emergency by the world’s third-biggest economy. “Responding to climate change is no longer a constraint on economic growth,” Suga said on Monday in his first policy address to parliament since taking office. “We need to change our thinking to the view that taking assertive measures against climate change will lead to changes in industrial structure and the economy that will bring about growth.” To applause from MPs, he added: “I declare we will aim to realise a decarbonised society.”

Guardian 26th Oct 2020 read more »