Hello everyone I'm Dr Bruno Gallotta. I'm a lecturer in operations management at the University of Derby and today I'll be talking about the pathways to net zero.
This presentation today, this part, this webinar is part of the High Peak skills for business programme and the High Peak Skills Programme has been developed by the University of Derby in partnership with the High Peak Borough Council and funded by the UK Government. So the programme has been developed to support businesses within The High Peak to develop digital, green and employability skills, in particular, this one's going to be focusing around the green skills.
So just before we start, I would just like to ask you to have a think about the pre session activities. So you should have received those activities before. So just start so before we even start talking about this presentation today I'd just like to invite you to have a think about those three videos. So the first one is from Sir David Attenborough, which is a well known, British broadcaster, natural historian and documentary filmmaker, so everyone knows him as one of the most influential figures in environmental advocacy and sustainability, and in this video is just a trailer to a longer BBC programme that is well known and watch when you have a bit of a time. The second video is from a gentleman called Jon Foley, who is from the Drawdown project. So if you haven't heard about the Drawdown project, I just like to invite you to have a look at the website. Have a look at their existing resources but just to summarise a little bit, the project Drawdown is a non profit organisation focusing on identifying and promoting the most effective solutions to combat climate change. It was founded in 2014 by Paul Hawken and has ever since it's become a leading resource for scalable climate solutions. So I invite you to have a look around the Drawdown project. And last but not least another video that I recommend is from John Elkington, who shares inspiration for exponential business change. So if you're not connecting the person to the concepts so John Elkington he was the author and he was the creator of the triple bottom line. So if you're ever seeing a framework that is talking about the sustainability overall, talking about the environmental, the social, the economic or elements, those three bubbles, how they are correlating. This was a theory that was created by Elkington. And last but not least, I just invited to have a look about one of our latest papers, one that was developed by a colleague of ours Dr Fred Patterson, so you can access the link in here.
So now that I gave this introduction, I'll just like to start with our agenda for today. So for today's session, we will start to discuss about why net zero is important, so specifically we will put a bit of a context so I’m going to go over some elements associated with climate change, with climate crisis most specifically. Then we will mention about the relevance of net zero, talk about some of the pathways to net zero, the skills for a sustainable future, what help, what support is available? And then we'll come to a close as well. As part of today's session of course, this is a recorded session so I have included some activities so there will be some times that I will mention that you have 10 minutes to do one activity or another activity. I have created a padlet to facilitate the collaboration of this and one of my intentions about this resource about the use of this resource is to have a discussion with the participants in the future as well.
Again, if you have any questions or if you have any comments about pretty much anything that I'm discussing here today, you're more than welcome to send me an email at b.gallotta2@derby.ac.uk you will have my contact details in the end.
So just to start, so why net zero is important, so why are we discussing about net zero so much? So I was just thinking about this when I was preparing to do this presentation here. So when I started to get involved with sustainability, so I'm talking about roughly about 10 years ago. Of course, it was very common for us to show like a picture of a polar bear sitting in solitary iceberg and climate change was something that we saw happening. So that was the reality that we as a academics we were thinking about that about 10-15 years ago. So now of course we are aware of the impacts of climate change it's having here now with flooding for air quality, wildfires, extreme temperatures, tornadoes, water shortages and communities across the globe and so on. So it seems like every week we see an incident happening somewhere in the world. And we know that the main driver of climate change is the greenhouse effect, so we know that there are some gases in the Earth atmosphere that act like a glass in the warehouse, so they are trapping the sun's heat and stopping it from leaking back into the space and causing global warming. So just to summarise everything, we know that humans, we humans, we are increasingly influencing climate and the Earth's temperature by burning fossil fuels, cutting down forest and farming livestock as well. And many of those greenhouse gases, they occur naturally, but we know that in the intense human activity is increasing the concentrations of some of them into the atmosphere. So whenever I'm thinking about, whenever I'm talking about the greenhouse gases, I'm not necessarily only talking about a carbon dioxide of course, carbon dioxide is the one that we most relate to carbon emissions, however, it's important to mention that there are all the gases that are quite relevant when we are talking about greenhouse gases, namely the methane. nitrosoxide and chlorinated gases as well.
Just to provide a global scenario of the climate crisis, as we can see from the left hand side, the charts on the left hand side, we can see that there is there has been a growing into the Earth's temperature over the years and in the right hand side we do have a chart that represents the levels of carbon dioxide concentrations. So there is a direct correlation between the high levels of CO2 emissions and the rise in the temperature. We know that the climate has changed naturally through the Earth’s history, but we know that the natural causes they cannot explain specifically, the rapid warming seen over the last century according to the United Nations climate body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, so the IPCC.
So of course that we know nowadays that this has been caused by human activity, in particular, the widespread use of fossil fuels, coal, oil, gas. So we're talking about the use not only in homes but also in factories and transport systems for instance. So when the fossil fuels they burn, they release greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide, and the CO2 acts like blankets, trapping the extra energy in the atmosphere near the earth surface. And this is pretty much what's causing the planet to heat up. So if we look back since the start of the industrial revolution, when we as humans, we started to burn large amounts of fossil fuels, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen by about 50%, extending far above seen levels has seen in the recent stored history. So the CO2 release from burning fossil fuels has a distinctive chemical fingerprint, and this is matching the type of CO2 that is increasingly found in the atmosphere. So we know that for now that climate change has already had a huge effect into the environment, so including more frequent and intense extreme weather like heat waves, heavy rainfall, rapid melting of glaciers and ice sheets, huge declines on the Arctic sea ice, warming in the oceans. So there are a lot of consequences that are associated with that. So just to give one example that is very recent. If you remember from the last year, so we're talking about what's what's happening in September and October, in the United States of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, they hit parts of the United States, and they had a costing talking about $50 billion, which is roughly £40 billion, according to some of the estimates. We recently saw some wildfires also in the United States, and there are several examples if we start to think about, so this is one of those charts from NASA, so NASA climate data from 1850 to the present we can see a clear warming trend with the bars transitioning from blue to red. So the vertical bar chart showing this global average of temperature change. Considering the idea of the warming stripes so raw data was downloaded from Berkeley Earth. So there are some links available to represent that, and one of the things that we discussed quite a lot when we are talking about increase in the temperature more specifically is the 1.5 degrees. So one of the main discussions that I would like to bring in here - so why does the 1.5degrees matter and how will future climate change affect the world? So we know that the more that the world warms, the worse the impacts of climate change become so limiting long term averages, temperature rises to 1.5 degrees has seen something very important. So if we look back to 2015, when there was the Paris Agreement, almost 200 countries pledged to try to curb the global warming to that amount to the 1.5 degrees but we were talking about for them to be reaching that 1.5 degrees in 2100 and this, according to the IPCC, this has already happened in the last year. So we can see that the temperatures they are rising quite a lot and the situation is worse than we thought 10 years ago. And of course, that whenever we're talking about global warming, we're talking about climate change, climate emergency, we are talking about different types of impacts depending on the region that you are. So we're not only talking about the aspects associated with that, we're talking about an increase into that the temperatures of the oceans, for instance, we might be talking about the death of specific populations, so if we get the example of a plankton, so a plankton is a type of life that is very susceptible to the temperature that is located in the waters. So if you change the temperature of the waters in 1 degree certain species of plankton, they simply might die. So if those species of plankton die, then the fish who's feeding from those plankton, very likely they will die as well. So as a consequence, we won't have fish. But again this has a huge scale when we are thinking about the whole complexity associated with that.
So if we're thinking about more specifically about the impacts of climate change, just to give a few examples, so a few years ago, I think it was in 2023 we saw some floods specifically within the East Midlands region, specifically in the region of Derby, Belper, Ambergate, Matlock, this region that we are here, it was I think it was in October and I think it was caused by the storm Babet. So there was a record on the river levels. So we were seeing the water rising quite a lot. So we saw the River Derwent reaching the highest recorded levels, so surpassing all the previous floods events. So we are talking about a direct impact around 1600 properties in the Derbyshire region, which were flooded with some of the areas from Chesterfield, saying the flood water surge in into homes. If you remember the Derby Museum of Making was also flooded, so there was a lot of disruption in the houses, but also there was lots of disruptions in the roads and rail services. They were affected by the floods as well and some communities they were completely isolated for days due to the flood waters and of course that as a consequence of that, so we're not only talking about the material damage of course during that specific time, we also had some fatalities as well as part of that. Also, we saw some economic impacts associated with that because lots of businesses that were located within those regions, they suffered losses due to the closure or damage into their property as well. So there is a direct impact associated with that.
If we get to the example from the last year so if you remember what was happening in Valencia in October, so in Valencia, Spain in 2024, it was one of the most devastating natural disasters in the country's history. And the impact was widespread and severe, affecting various aspects of the life in the region. So if we think about the region of Valencia in Spain, it's a region that is known for some presence of manufacturing companies mostly talking about automobile industry, if I'm not mistaken, they have Ford factory in there, but also the city is known for the tourism so, and of course that those economic scenarios they were affected. So if we're thinking about only from the financial side of things, if we're only thinking about the economic side of things, we are talking about an impact, a massive impact into some of the main areas of that specific region. So we're talking about over millions of euros in terms of impact, but also we're thinking about some casualties we're thinking about about over 200 lives that were lost in that. Thousands of people that were displaced from their homes, how many people they were directly or indirectly affected by that. And of course there was the disruption of essential services like water, electricity, telecommunications as well. So it was a massive impact to that specific region. According to one of the Valencia’s Chamber of Commerce had he was mentioning that the overall bill, so the overall costs that were associated to that specific situation would be about 10 billion euros. So there's a massive impact associated with that.
Before we move on on today's session, I'd just like you to have a quick thought. So I would like you to have a think. So I just like to give you 5 minutes to have a think about how do you feel about climate change. Do you feel anxiety? Do you feel guilt, frustration, anger, sadness, motivation, hope? Because we hear a lot about climate change. We see it pretty much every day in newspapers on news. But of course I believe that is important for us to reflect on. How do we feel about that? So I would just like you to, I would just like to invite you to have a think. So have 5 minutes of thoughts about your own feelings about climate change, and then I would like you to have your mobile phones. You scan this QR code. This is going to take you to a padlet. And in this padlet I just want to see what are your feelings associated with climate change? And I'm just going to give you 5 minutes to do that. If you want, you can pause this video whilst you're doing this activity. I'm just gonna get some water. When you complete this task, you can move on to the next session. I'm just gonna give you a few more seconds and then I'm just moving to the next part.
OK, so I'm just talking a little bit about some of the most recent United Nations reports and aspects associated with climate change. So as I was mentioning before, we now have evidence according to the IPCC, that the planet has moved a major step closer to warming more than 1.5 degrees so new data. So this is from January. So this data specifically from January. New data indication shows that despite the world leaders vowing for a decade ago that they would try to avoid this, we know that. So according to the European Copernicus Climate Service, one of the main global data providers, 2024 was the 1st calendar year to pass the symbolic threshold of 1.5 degrees as well as the world's hottest day on record. So this doesn't mean that the international 1.5 degrees has been broken, because that refers to a long term average over decades. But does bring us near to doing as so as fossil fuel emissions continue to hit the atmosphere. So a few weeks ago the United Nations Chief, Antonio Guterres, described the recent run of temperatures records as a climate breakdown. So we must exit this road to ruin. And we have no time to lose. So this is his words on the New Year's message calling for countries to slash the emissions of planet warming gases in 2025. So this has been a trend that has been happening ever since the 2018 and the 2023 IPCC reports. But of course, that's the news that we are having. They are not great. Of course, that's one of the elements around today's presentation. And one of the things that we want to discuss as part of this project and as part of the projects that we run at the University of Derby, that changing is possible. And we are here to prepare for a low carbon future to prepare for a net zero future. So this is one of the relevance's about today's webinar.
So talking about the pathways to net zero, I think what's probably brought most of you to today's session here. I'd just like to start by saying about the concept of net zero, because we hear a lot about net zero, about carbon neutrality, but it's not very clear to some people what is the real meaning of net zero. So whenever we're thinking about net zero, we're thinking about achieving a balance between the greenhouse gases that we put into the atmosphere and the ones that we are taking out. So usually one of the main analogies that people make to explain what is a net zero is to think about above. So if you think about above instead of water we're talking about carbon emissions. So we're thinking about the amount of carbon that we are putting into the atmosphere and the amount of carbon that we are removing out of the atmosphere. So when we have a balance, that's when we have the net zero. So that's pretty much what we are trying to achieve. There is usually a bit of a misconception and different explanations for different contexts, because a lot of people confuse carbon neutrality and net zero. Whenever we're thinking about carbon neutrality, so achieving carbon neutral status, we're only thinking about operational emissions of a specific company. So I'm not going to get into most of the details about this today. This is going to be mainly around the next webinar. So there's going to be 1 webinar more specifically around the carbon calculation methods. But I would just want to bring a very brief overview about this because basically, whenever we are evaluating carbon emission of a specific organisation we consider trimming scopes, so scope one are the direct type of emissions. Scope two are the indirect type of emissions, usually related to energy, so we're thinking about electricity, gas usage and so on. And then we do have scope three types of emissions, which are the emissions that are sitting outside the organisation. So we're talking about the emissions that are mostly within the the organisation supply chain, usually for most of the businesses. So if you're thinking about traditional business like manufacturing companies. We are thinking about 80% of the carbon emissions sitting on the scope three type of emissions. So whenever a company is claiming that they are aiming for carbon neutrality, they are not trying to focus on those scope 3 type of emissions. They are only focusing around the scope one and scope 2 type of emissions. I'm not saying that this is a negative thing, but of course that we're only solving part of the problem when they are focusing on carbon neutrality, if you want if you want so as I mentioned here in the bottom carbon neutrality, they are both important. But carbon neutrality is a very good first step. But if we want to solve the problem, if you if we want to reduce our emissions, if we want to reduce our impacts, we need to think about net zero. So it's a further step on that. So we are thinking about not only the direct carbon emissions, but also the indirect carbon emissions. So we're thinking about more upfront work to collect and to process data, and it requires more investment to buy in from all the areas and businesses that are located in a specific supply chain.
Just mention a little bit about the UK public policy. So there is current public policy around net zero by the year of 2050 and the UK has several strategies associated with that. So I've just included here the list of some of the existing strategies and documents from the UK. Just to mention some of them they are quite relevant. So for instance, the 10 point plan for industrial green revolution. Provides the overall framework for the transition to low carbon future, of course there are going to be some more specific to specific projects to specific sectors in the UK, but the bottom line of this is that the UK was the first major economy to pass laws to end its contribution to global warming by 2050. And of course one of the aims, one of the objectives of the UK's reaching 78% of reductions by 2035. In November of 2020, the UK government created, launched the White Paper powering our net zero future, arguing that more than 6 million people are in jobs, that will be affected directly or indirectly by the clean energy, and setting up a task force to support the creation of 2,000,000 new green collar jobs in the UK by that year. So one of the things that I would like to mention about this are the different focuses. So for instance, when we're thinking about the clean growth strategy of the UK, there is a lot of proposals. So for instance, initially it was thinking thinking about when we're thinking about transport for instance, initially the plan was to phase out the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040. However, this plan has been already updated, so nowadays. The plan is to move to either electric, hybrid, other alternative types of vehicles by 2035 at the same time, there are some plans specifically associated to buildings. So for instance, upgrading UKs building stock to EPC by 2035, phasing out installation of fossil fuels, heating of the gas grid by 2030. Poweris another quite relevant element in terms of carbon emission. So new low carbon electricity generation. So provding 85% of the UK generation by 2032. Industries are improving business energy efficiency at least on 20% by 2032 and cross cutting as well, so deploying carbon capture and storage at scale in the 2030s. So of course that the UK has a set of strategies, a set of plans for the future. But currently we are within this transition, so I remember when we first saw this report and some of the other reports we were talking about all of them in a very strategic way. So thinking about more about what are the plans for the future and I remember like in the early 2019-2020, a little bit like that that we were getting into what we call the decade for action. So we are currently when we were talking about 2020. It's the the time between 2020 and 2030. That's what we call the decade for action, because if we want to achieve a low carbon future, if we want to achieve the net zero future by 2050, we need to start doing things now. We need to start doing things in this decade and we are aware that a lot of the companies they are already doing things around this topic, but this needs to be rolled out. This needs to be adopted by other organisations as well. This need to be adopted by smaller and medium organisations. And that's why this project, for instance, is quite interesting for us to be able to provide this type of support, but also some other projects that we have participated in the past as well. I'm going to share a little bit about them in the end of today's presentation.
One other things that I like to mention. Whenever I'm teaching about this specific topic is to talk about the business case, or more specifically the business need for sustainability. Because if we are thinking about sustainability, let's say 20-30 years ago, maybe we would only be talking about some environmental practises, probably water management. Probably pollution control, so probably we would be talking about something quite marginal, but we were not thinking about what would be the implications of sustainability for a specific business. Nowadays there is a lot of research that indicates that there are some benefits for companies that have sustainability practises and that are focusing around sustainability and trying to lead on the topic of sustainability. So just to mention some of them starting with consumer preferences. So there was a recent study from McKinsey and Neilson that observe the sales growth for products that claim to be environmentally and socially responsible and more than 60% of that specific survey, they said that they would pay more for a product with sustainable packaging. There is some other indication mentioning that 78% of the United States consumers, they say that sustainable lifestyle is important to them. Products that are making ESG related claims the average to be 28% cumulative growth over the past five years period versus 20% of the products that made no claims. So in some cases being sustainable is actually good for business. Thinking about investment, so how companies they are deciding on where they're going to be investing more specifically where banks are going to be investing. So there is a recent report from Morgan Stanley that found out that 85% of individual investors they are interested in sustainable investing and nearly 75% of millennials, they express interest in sustainable investment opportunities. Nowadays investors, they want to hear from companies about the values of sustainability. So because basically if you're investing your money in a specific company, you want to know that this company is going to be sustainable. You want to know about those aspects. Also, there might be the aspect associated with regulatory pressures as well, so if we got the example of the European Union, for instance, the European Union has introduced a Green Deal aiming to make Europe the first climate neutral continent by 2050, which includes some very strict regulations on emissions and sustainable practises. So if you want to operate in Europe, you need to have specific practises. The European Union has introduced that circular economy action plan as well that aims to target how products they are designed promotes a circular economy process, encouraged sustainable consumption, and aims to ensure that waste is prevented, that resources they are kept in EU economy as long as possible as well. Just to give one example about the UK more specifically. Major organisation, so getting the examples of the location that we are so for instance, if we get the example of Rolls Royce or if we get the example of the NHS, both of those organisations, they have a specific sustainable procurement plan. What do I mean by that? If you want to be a supplier from for the NHS or for Rolls Royce, for instance, you need to have sustainable sustainability credentials. You cannot be part of the NHS if you don't have sustainable practises.
Talking about financial performance, so there was a study from the Harvard Business School that indicated that companies that prioritise sustainability, they tend to report better financial performance. So firms that adopted sustainable practise, they outperformed their peers on average in 5% in terms of return in equity as well. So this is very much associated with the risk mitigation aspect as well, because if this if there is a risk associated with that, the last element that I would like to talk about in terms of the business need or the business case for sustainability is the aspect around attraction of talent. So there was a survey from LinkedIn from 2021. That it that revealed that 75% of job seekers they consider a company commitment to stability when they are applying for a job. And one survey from Deloitte from the last year so from 2024 with over 22,000 Gen Z and millennials in 44 different countries identified and indicated that more than 70% said that they would consider a prospective employers environmental policies when they are looking for a job and a quarter of Gen Z and millennials mentioned that that this has already impacted whether or not they would accept a job and again, of course, we might be thinking about entry level positions more specifically for thinking about Gen Z people. However, companies are larger organisations they are thinking in terms of strategy. So very likely they are thinking about not only the people that are entering now as a placement or as an internship, but also they are thinking about who are going to be the directors, their managers in about 10 years time, 15 years time and who will be, probably Gen Z probably millennials as well. So if they are not attractive to right talent if they are not retaining the right talent, they are losing to their competitors in that specific, they are losing high highly talented professionals to the to their competitors. Just to summarise some of the best the business benefits of sustainability, usually we would mention about cost saving and improved efficiency. So just to mention one quick example. So if your organisation has outdated lighting and changes to LED lighting, so you instantly start saving money and you instantly start saving carbon emissions as well. Enhanced reputation, enhanced reputation retains and attracts high quality staff, grow business, attract new customers and enter new markets with business and corporate supply chains, better access to finance, funding and insurance, and reduce risk and be ready to stricter regulations as well.
What are the business needs? The national picture that we have. So we know that the UK needs to cut its carbon emissions by 2/3 in the current decade that we are. If we think about more specifically about small, smaller organisations. So thinking about SMEs, we know there is an indication of our research that 76% of the SMES they don't have the Carbonisation plan. More than that 69% of small businesses, they don't know how to measure how much the carbon emissions are and how much carbon emissions the business produces. 75% of the world's largest companies expect to deselect suppliers based on environmental performance and at the same time, 89% of the consumers they are more likely to shop with businesses who display sustainable practises. At the same time, 94% of the smaller businesses they suddenly have taken at least one action to reduce carbon emissions as well.
But what are the current business needs and what are the regional appetite for net zero? So this is a survey that was done by the small business, the FSB, the federation of small business in 2021 and evaluated the different regions in the UK and the appetite for net zero. Unfortunately, as you can see in this graph, we are located in here we are the worst region in terms of the regional appetite for net zero. So we are sitting with 24%. The national average is 37%. So our region East Midland seems to have much smaller appetite to move from basic cost saving measures to a more holistic net zero pathway. But again this is something that we will need to change over the next few years. If we're thinking about about specifically about smaller organisations and what are the business needs, we know that SMEs, they need help. SME's want to have that to have help. So this chart here again from FSB talks about about the proportion of small businesses that say that more information from the local authority would encourage the business to be more energy efficient. And again, if we are looking specifically into the region that we are, we can see that 32% of the businesses, they said that they want to have more information about that. One of the reason might be a thirst for more information and say, inspiration from the local enterprise partnerships or from the LEPs, local councils and other regional supporting agencies. So we're thinking about universities, Chambers of Commerce as well.
As we can see here the East Midlands shows a great desire out of all the English regions that there is a real call to action for the supporting agency to redouble their efforts to help SMEs, and particularly to join the journey to net zero. And this need to this need for support is partly because until recent most of the supporting resource for for business created by national agencies like Carbon Trust, they have been aimed at large corporate organisations and delivered via one-size-fits-all region initiatives and there is one thing that we know about SMEs is that their needs are individual and very time dependent as well. But of course, we know that information isn't the main need that the SMEs need.
According to some research, specifically from the British Business Bank, the top ten barriers to net zero actions that smaller companies face, they are presented in this chart here. The main one would be the element associated with the upfront capital costs, so usually. So we've been running workshops and events like this to face to face online as well. We have engaged with a number of companies before. And all the times that we were asking what are the main issues for for an SME, what do you need from us? And usually companies always mention about the cost, the capital cost element. Other things that I mentioned here that are quite interesting as well is the required technologies or local infrastructure vehicles not available, very likely talking about electric cars, electrifications. So what is the existing infrastructure for that? So thinking about charging points all that kind of stuff, lack of control over the action, low priority for business, lack of available cash or finance, again, the financial element here again. Lack of information and certain future regulation laws, standard ongoing operation operating costs. Another element associated with cost or not practical doesn't work for our business.
So this is just another representation of that of the different barriers, but this time, considering the different industries. It's fun to see what are the different aspects associated with different industries. Specifically interesting to compare manufacturing with service based organisations as well. We can see that the construction area in particular when we are thinking about cost or costs is one of the main aspects associated when we're thinking about the construction aspect. This is could be probably because of the materials when we are thinking about the construction as an industry, as an industry that uses quite a lot of raw materials, quite a lot of cement. So maybe that will be a cost element associated with that. That could be a bit stronger than other sectors. If we're thinking about manufacturing sector, we will be talking about feasibility. If we're thinking about, let me just see about business services. Yeah, one of the things that caused attention is yeah, again cost as well and the information seems to be a bit bigger here when we're thinking about agriculture. Being about funding the net zero journey, so yeah, again financial elements, they will discuss as one of the main ones. We know there is according to the survey from FSB from 2021, only 18% of the SME's they have invested in generating their own energy. Of those that have not yet taken steps to address their energy usage, so 22% highlight lack of capital as a as a reason for not investing and 54% of the SMEs, they say their grants or low interest will have them to be more energy efficient as well. According to the survey here, more than one in 10 SMEs and they have excess external finance for net zero actions and 22% of SMS they are willing to consider external finance support for net zero as well.
One of the things that I would I would like to mention as well as part of this presentation are the pathways to guide you in this progress. So currently there are several tools that are available, several websites and projects that are available to help organisations to create and to design pathways to net zero, just to mention some of them of course but I cannot mention all of them, but just mention some of them. I'd just like to pin point here the Certified B Corporation, which is using a business as a force for good, the SMEs Climate Hub is a very good resource as well. The 1.5 business playbook as well, Carbon Trust has a specific focus nowadays with SMEs and they have their own calculators for to help SMEs to calculate their carbon emissions. So I definitely recommend you to have a look at that. On the other workshop that I'm presenting, I'll be talking about more specifically about carbon emissions, and I will be providing more details about this.
Currently, there are some sustainability platforms, so just to give some examples, Net zero Now, Greenly, Zellar - Zellar is a fantastic tool that helps you to calculate, understand, and track the baseline carbon emissions. So there are just some resources that are available to help. Organisations to track their carbon emissions. Just to mention from some pathway to business sustainability. It all starts with responsible business and ethics. It goes to decarbonisation, resource efficiency, product and service innovation, future fit business models, and that's supply chains and leaderships as well. So of course it's very difficult for a company to start thinking about sustainability, thinking about net zero and starting to say, Oh yeah, from next week I'm going to become a company that is future fit, a company that is fully sustainable, that has a green supply chain. Of course it takes steps and we acknowledge that we understand that. But of course it starts with business ethics. It starts with understanding. It starts with reviewing. What are the practises? What is the current knowledge? What are the ways to reduce the carbon emissions? So now it feels like I've spoke quite a lot. So just like to ask you to have a think about what is your business mostly focused on in terms of, in terms of what we've been discussing here. So I'll just like you to think about when we are thinking about sustainability, more specifically about the topic that I'm talking about, I would like you to have a think about what is your business mostly focused on, is it in risk, reputation and environmental credentials, cost savings and productivity, revenue andegneration in green growth, developing green skills in the workforce, new green markets, sustainable business models, supply chain sustainability. I'm just going to give you 10 minutes to have a think about that and then when you thought about that, I would just like you again, get your mobile phones, scan this QR code. This is going to take you to a padlet and I'll just like you to include your inputs into this padlet. And as I mentioned before, feel free to click on the pause when you're completing this activity. When you finish this activity, you may move on to the next part. I'm just gonna move on to the next part.
The journey to net zero for SMEs, so when we are thinking about the pathway to net zero, we are thinking about something that is circular. Of course, it starts with the commitment to the responsible purpose, but just the commitment is not enough. Organisations that want to make a change, they also need to measure to monitor the carbon emissions, to set goals, target the hot spots, making plans, building capacity, engaging in stakeholders and then taking actions to benefit climate and environment as well. I just want to mention some other tools that are available in some other websites that are available. So just to mention the UK business Climate Hub provides net zero advice for small and medium enterprises in the UK and the UK business Climate Hub is a shared endeavour developed with the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero. And the SMEs climate hub and the UKs main business organisations, energy networks, High Street banks and professional bodies. So I just recommend you to explore some of those links in here as well.
One of the other things that I would just like to mention as well. Are the SMEs road maps to a net zero journey. So of course, again, as I was mentioning before, it's very difficult for us to say that a company will move from the current state, so where the currently are to a net zero stage. So the exponential road map was created by the 1.5 degrees business playbook and establishes what are the steps, what are the road maps for a company that wants to move to net zero? So what are the stages of a net zero journey? So specifically thinking about the 1.5 playbook, this playbook was developed for companies and organisations that want to align their operations with the 1.5 degrees and at 0 emissions and contain solid guidelines for companies of all sizes to set targets, strategy and actions. It focuses on simplicity and speed and is grounded in to science targets. The companies with advanced climate strategies can use this as a tool to benchmark their approach and raise ambitions. So when we are thinking about this specific approach, the playbook helps you to establish a clear climate strategy to define targets, to set requirements for suppliers and align value propositions with the 1.5 degrees and the net zero ambition. Just to navigate this with this framework that we have here. Again, it all starts with setting the target, setting the strategy so understanding targeting net zero and a first halving of emissions in less than 10 years. Your plan and proceeds, so you prioritise your plan and you do scope one and scope two types of emissions you will assess and you analyse scope one and scope two emissions and results of reductions and disclosure of those results publicly as well. When you're able to reduce your emissions so again, when I'm talking about school one and scope two, just a quick reminder, I'm talking about what are your own operational emissions. So what are the things that you can control? Scope two type of emissions, what are the emissions associated with the energy that you are consuming? So electricity, gas usage and so on. So when you understand that, then you finish your understanding your own emissions. Then companies need to start thinking about what are the missions within the supply chains so reducing the value chain emissions so targeting net zero plus halving emissions in less than 10 years, prioritise, plan and reduce scope three type of emissions, assess and analyse scope three emissions and results of reduction and disclose those results publicly as well. Again, most of the carbon emissions as I was mentioning before, they are located within the scope three type of emissions so this sometimes can be a little bit challenging. However, understanding what are those carbon emissions, understanding ways to reduce them, it's the obvious first step associated with that. How can companies do that? Basically, companies can analyse, can evaluate their current value chain, so understand what are the materials that they are consuming. If they are using any packaging. What are the end of life or the products that they are producing that they are generating? Is it possible to have a reversible supply chain associated with that. The third element is integrating climate into business strategy as well. So integrating climate into your vision, mission strategy, value proposition, product services and road maps aiming at positive overall impact. So I'm talking about moving towards products or services that help customers to avoid and remove emissions and implement circular business models as well. So measuring impacts of your solutions portfolio and exchange and disclose the information publicly. Followed by that, we're talking about influence climate action in society. So influence society and contribute to the 1.5 degrees ambition beyond your own business. Accelerate the climate action by working with the industry, government employees and civil society groups, fund quality climate projects, counter balancing remaining residual emissions. Evaluate the impact of your societal influence and disclose those results publicly. So again, if we are looking at this framework, I know that it seems quite a lot, but if we are just breaking down into four main categories, it starts by producing your own emissions. So again, think about what are the things that you control, what are the things that you have the access to, how can you reduce your day-to-day activities? The second step, think about the whole operations of your organisation. What are all the elements that are associated with that? How can you further reduce your carbon emissions to what's extending from the facilities of your organisation. The third one, how is this environmental strategy, how is this sustainability strategy integrated with your own organisational strategy? So how are you connecting that within your business strategy and that as a consequence, what are you doing as a consequence? What are what are you influencing the market? So how is your business influencing the existing market. Just to mention, one of the things that we like to always think about is how sustainability will be in the future. So a few years ago Mark Carney, who was the head of Central Bank of England, he called the question specifically about the very existence of corporations that don't adhere to the steep emissions reductions required to limit warming to 1.5 degrees basically what they said, those that fail to adapt, they will cease to exist. So since then, the continuing rise of emissions has led to mounting pressures on companies from employees, regulatory bodies and activist investors. So like some of the recent success of investor activism at Exxon Mobil, Carney’s prophecy may soon be becoming to pass, so it's possible for corporations to be part of the transformational change required or will they remain complicit in the status quo?
So this is just one of those things to think so. Nowadays, every business, they must now ask not only to how can we reduce our emissions as quickly as possible, but also how can we use our full resources and scale, influence, the passion of our employees and our broader community to help the world where we are living, where things can thrive on.
Just to mention about some of the resources that we have available at the University of Derby. So you have the link to our eight steps on the pathway to net zero. So again, as part of the University of Derby, we are very focused about supporting SME's, specifically supporting SME's into the journey of net zero. And as part of our offer, we have a strategy that starts by committing to the net zero journey, getting a net zero guide book plan your net zero pathway, find your net zero pathway, develop your sustainability skill base, take net zero actions, share your journey and then mark your equal milestone. So we at the University of Derby we have been helping SMEs to become cleaner, greener and more resilient for years. So for instance I've taken part of different projects across the universities. So I took part of the ERDF project, the ERDF Smart Factory project, the ERDF innovate for real project and we have supported a lot of number of SME's on those projects. We do have a sustainable research team that are helping organisations to set ambitions to develop their plans to reach net zero and regenerate the environment. And as a precursor to any of support provided, every eligible firm that signs up to this to the net zero pathways, will receive a specific support associated with that.
Just to mention one of the things that I've provided a very brief overview as a consequence of our experience at university as a consequence of the work that we did with SME's in the D2N2 region we have developed some net zero guidebooks. So we have developed 12 different guides aimed at SMEs. So they are very directly related to SMEs and they are very focused to the industry level specifically considering the SME situation. Those guides, they are very straightforward. They are all I think all they are about 5 pages, 5 to 6 pages so we're not asking you to read a massive book about it. So they are just summarising the main aspects about the different topics so as you can see here opportunity one is getting carbon savvy and two is energy efficiency, resource efficiency and digitalization from waste to value stream, low emission transport, bringing our supply chain, green funding and finance, research development and eco innovation, great skills for the future, environmental accreditation and green marketing, sustainable business models and strategy and national support and local networks as well. And you have the link in here, I'm going to provide this link in the end of this presentation as well. So here are all of the opportunities that we have developed. And also most recently we have also created the 13th opportunity on the journey to net zero, which is nature connected organisation handbook as well. And you can access that as well here. So you have all of the links to all of the resources that I'm mentioning today. If you need, if you require any support from the University of Derby, you have this link in here, so you can just access the SMEs net zero pathways page and you can fill out how we can support you in the best way possible. Just mention about some of the existing projects and the latest projects that we have taken part. So just to mention the Carbon Literacy Project, the sustainable supply chains, the Green Enterprise programme, the low Carbon Business Podcast, low Carbon Business Network, ERDF decarbonize project, the 12 guides to sustainability. If you look here to this building, here is our new Business School that we hope to be present there in there in September as well. And you have the links to some of the existing research that we have done in the past as well. Just to mention the page of our Derby Innovation Accelerator page as well.
And for now, I'd just like to discuss a little bit to have a chat about the skills for the future as well. So one of the things that is quite relevant is how to calculate your carbon footprint. So again, as I was mentioning before, I will provide more details about how to calculate your carbon emissions in another webinar, but again, if you want to explore a little bit more, you can always access the SMEs climate hub. You can always access Zella, you can always access Carbon Trust and you can find more information about how SMEs can monitor, calculate and track their own carbon emissions. Again, the carbon footprint gives an indication about your impact on the environment, which is caused by the burning fossil fuels like oil and gas, and it's measured in carbon dioxide emitted per year. And different calculators, they could be more suitable for specific situations. So for instance we have the one from WWF that is very good to measure an individual carbon emissions calculator. So if you want to see what are your current carbon emissions, you can click in the one from the WWF, but also if you're thinking about the carbon emissions from smaller SMEs perspective, Zeller is quite good Carbon Trust is quite good. Of course, they're the most complete one, where you're going to find all of the different conversion factors would be around the department for Energy Security and Net Zero, where you can find all of the different conversion factors. But again, there are some that are a little bit more simpler to SME's as well. Just mention a little bit about something about our own research. So quite recently, yeah, a few years ago, a couple of years ago we published a paper called ‘Towards a conceptual framework of enterprise support for pro-environmental, small and medium sized enterprises. A contextualised review of diverse knowledge domains’ where we explore the different value propositions so we're talking about social, environmental and economic as well and talk about environmental capabilities, eco innovations, sustainable supply chains, responsible leadership, multi stakeholder engagement, green growth skills and how those different concepts are correlated into the aspect associated with enterprise support as well.
Just to talk about net zero transition in the UK. So if we're thinking about the whole UK, we're thinking about a service based economy with low exposure to net zero transition. So high consumer emissions per capita. So we're thinking about management at consumer level. So we can see the UK CO2 territorial emissions by regions. So we can see that we are again this Midlands region. So we are within 8.43%, which is not so bad, but there are some sectors around the UK that are they are experiencing some specific growth. So we're thinking about offshore wind, electricity networks, smart technologies, building retrofit and construction of new builds. Again, this is very much associated with the UKs overall strategy for net zero that I was mentioning before, part of the 10 points plan so thinking about developments within energy, developments within the built environment, but also we're thinking about green sectors to grow ahead and transition so thinking about hydrogen ccus, climate resilience, nature conservation restoration as well. So mentioning about hydrogen freezes the university currently has a project with some organisations. I'm not sure if we can disclose that moment, which of those organisations. But specifically around hydrogen, most specifically about the application of hydrogen to transport, which should be fantastic. So hopefully we'll have some good evidence about this in the future. And there are some sectors experiencing significant transformation. So thinking about automotive, heating and cooling, circular economy, resource efficiency, oil and gas. So a lot of things they are changing quite constantly. So again, one of the things that I always tell my students whenever I'm teaching those topics is that this is a very effervescent topic. So things they are changing constantly so this to me in my opinion this is quite interesting because it means that we are changing quite a lot, we are evolving as a society, we are changing our technologies. However, it just gives me a bit of an extra work because every time that I'm teaching about this specific topic, I need to review it again. I need to see if there are any news associated with that. If there are any new discoveries, any changes associated with that.
Just to talk about the net zero review. So what are the skills in focus? So those are the main skills in terms of net zero prevails, net zero development so thinking about science, but also change management technology, engineering, leadership, maths and management, project management, digital and data education, communication - all of those aspects, they are very much relevant to net zero. However, according to our research, there are skill gaps and nature based solutions. So the top 10 green skills in demand for 2023 of energy efficiency, business strategy, resource efficiency, environmental strategy and waste management as well. So based on this research, the engagement of regional business with nature based solutions in 2023, so we're thinking about this dark blue here, most companies actually never got involved with that. So of course that this needs to change as well. The other thing that I would like to mention is that there is existing support for net zero skills and shifts, so working with the Department for Energy and Security at net zero, we are supporting the training providers to upskill the workforce in a range of low carbon and energy efficiency skills, and we know that to achieve UKs government target to be net zero by 2050, we need to have more professionals that are trained to install, maintain energy efficiency measures like insulation, low carbon technologies and more. So skills of training competitions that we have, they need to be up skilled. So just mentioning we do have the middle of the net zero hub upskilling to deliver energy efficiency projects to different investments associated with that. The 13 million in East Midlands Institute of technology, the 5.4 million in training centre for low carbon construction as well. So just to mention that there are some things that are happening in terms of the low carbon skills. And again, what is the support that is available so not only what are we offering at the university, but just to mention from a larger scale, so thinking about regional green growth support. So the Derby innovation accelerator programme the Derby City Council, the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce, the East Midlands Mayoral Combined Authority, Innovate UK as well the National Clean Green growth support as well. So the clean Growth Strategy announced the government ambition to provide up to 20 million support nuclear technology in early stage investments from 2020 and 2030. Green finance strategies or financial mechanism to products and incentives to support response to climate change concerns – Innovate UK, Carbon Trust, Clean Growth UK CBI, FSB, small business Britain as well. So those are some of the examples. So I just recommend you to have a look at those websites and see.
If we're thinking about energy efficiency more specifically, I have included some lists in here of websites that could be very useful. So again I always mention, and I always explain and talk about the energy saving trusts, they have lots of case studies and efficiency resources and they frequently run events to help businesses to make informed choices like supply chain advice. The smallbusiness.co.uk website provides a range of online energy efficiency news for SME owners, including start-ups, the UK Government page Energy and technology list has a list of the technology products that you can buy that are low carbon, so if you're planning to buy new plant equipment, it would cover independently verified energy efficient products like boilers, lighting, air conditioning and refrigeration equipment as well. What are some of the grants that are going to be available? A lot of the government schemes offer loans, grants and subsidised energy saving measures to support SMEs with reducing their impact in the environment, and they usually help with energy efficiency measures and different costs of investing in energy efficient equipments, waste management, sustainable development initiatives and so on. Again, I've just included the links in here and you can look at all of the different finance support and grants that are available. So you're more than welcome to have a look at those links.
Just to mention, we do have some other University of Derby workshops as part of the High Peak programme talking about digital and green skills modules. So we do have the digital marketing skills, the digital transformation skills as well, and we have the carbon footprinting made easy practical steps for sustainable business as well. Again, if you want to know more, if you want to talk to us, you can access our net zero pathways for SMEs page. You can tell more about your needs, you can find out and then we can find out how we can best support you in this and then just to finish today's session, I would just like you to have a think about what are or what is your next step on the pathway to net zero and how the university can help you to achieve this.
So again have a think I have a think about 10 minutes about this, reflect on how can we best support you on that and then when you have that answer get your phone, use the QR code and then let us know how can we best support. I'm just going to leave it for a little bit with this page, but again I just recommend you to reflect on that for the next 10 minutes.
So that’s it for today. So just to mention, we do have some post session activities so I have included a few links in here so I'll be more than happy if you could explore some of those links and also some of the links that I've mentioned before. So as a consequence of today, I'll just invite you to explore the climate change news from BBC. BBC offers a very good overview about climate change, about climate emergency the Sustainable Development Goals as well the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. If you want to know a little bit more about circular economy, go to Alan MacArthur Foundation. They have lots of resources, lots of case studies on the topic, future fit business, you can always go for future fit business.org. Then, of course, the University of Derby net zero pathways. Just to finalise this, last but not least, one of the things that I always like to do whenever I'm doing a workshop like this, because of course that's we always use a lot of specific jargons and specific words. So I've just created here a sustainability jargon buster. So if you're just in doubt about any specific concept or if you're a little bit unsure, you can always come back to this slide here. And think about the definitions. So climate change, we're talking about the long term shifts in temperatures and about the patterns probably caused by human activities like burning fossil fuels, sustainable development, we're talking about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations, greenhouse gases. So we're talking about the gases that absorb and trap heat from the Suns in the Earth's atmosphere. So we're talking about carbon dioxide, methane, nitros oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perofluro carbons, sulphur, hexafluoride and nitrogen trifloride. How about footprint? We're thinking about the total greenhouse gas emissions caused by the business or a set of business activities. Renewable energy, if you had about energy sources that are naturally replenished on a human time scale like solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower and net zero with when we're talking about net zero, we're talking about the balance between the greenhouse gases that we put into the atmosphere and those that we take out and the balance will happen when the amount of carbon we add to the atmosphere is no more than the amount that we have removed. Again, if you have any questions or if you have any comments, you can always contact us in our in our page. But also you're more than welcome to send me an email at b.gallotta2@derby.ac.uk
And that's it from me today. Thank you very much. I hope you enjoyed today's session. Thank you.
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