whether they're turning on lights
traveling or making things people and
businesses produce millions of tons of
greenhouse gases this has a big impact
and when I was elected leader of the
council I said we'd do something about
it by powering up the green economy
we've worked with the University of
Derby to set up the green entrepreneurs
program it shared2 million in Grants
with 70 businesses and individuals so
they can learn green skills change how
they work and grow green business
opportunities now we can show you what
that looks like pen engineering was
established in
1978 uh we uh recently received two
sections of Grants from the green
entrepreneurs fund uh which we've used
towards our two buildings on site uh the
first building we had new solar panels
we've had heating controls we've had
ventilation systems and we've replaced
all the LED lighting and uh the the
electrics £40,000 to the company in in
in the grant is almost like having to do
£ 400,000 pounds worth of turnover to to
get that sort of um profitability to to
spend we recycle plastic but we're very
very focused we're focusing on PVC which
has come from cooling town flers and
water treatment
plants the material that we take in we
we process it um we separate out things
that we don't want so we just get to the
PVC we reduce the size and we get it to
a flake and that can then be used by
manufacturers producing things like
drainage pipes guttering and so on and
so forth the challenge we had was
contamination on that incoming material
so green entrepreneurs program has been
a huge help for us because we've been
able to build a pre- cleaner that we've
developed and designed in house uh and
this is now operational and it is
absolutely doing the job well you can
see by the size of the stock piles
behind me that we're really got to a
point where we were struggling to
continue to go forward because we simply
couldn't process this material
economically we get approximately 25,000
visitors a year we applied for the green
entrepreneurs funding and in 2022 and we
were looky enough to get it and with
that we put that towards a 228 panel
solar array um which has generated over
the last 18 months approximately 85,000
kotow units um which I believe
would power 28 three-bedroomed homes for
a year up to now um it's saved as a prop
approximately £30,000 in electric which
is really beneficial to the business
financially and people can see that
we're a green business we're making an
effort to eventually become carbon
neutral and which I'm really proud of as
part of the University of Derby's
program management for the green
entrepreneurs program um we provided an
impact assessment report and that ask
the organizations that have been
supported what have the benefits been to
them uh and over 95% of them told us
that they had improved their carbon
reductions it's improved their
operational
processes and importantly I would say
this wouldn't I but they're telling us
that they're looking for the next stage
in this that they they're telling us
that this is almost the first stage
they're on a an zero pathway Journey now
and they're looking for where the next
set of funding is going to come from to
to get them along Further Along on that
pathway the results tell their own green
story businesses have cut costs and
Emissions they've reduced waste and
improved efficiency and they've develop
brilliant new business opportunities so
this is what real world progress towards
net zero looks like while the green
entrepreneurs program has ended the
challenge hasn't darish has shown that
the journey to Net Zero can really pay
off so let's think big power up the
green economy right across the region