On the 25th of November, 2021, the Future Leap Network hosted an online interactive event titled “Minimising Manufacturing Cost: Waste, Resources, Carbon”. Before the event began, the attendees enjoyed some pre-sessional networking.
Lauren Fields of Future Leap welcomed the attendees before giving an insight into The Future Leap Network, Future Leap Hub and the many benefits of membership, as well as the Festival of Sustainable Business.
Lauren went on to quote Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance “It’s not just a niche part of the economy. It’s a whole economy transition”. A quote that reverberated throughout the following speaker’s presentations.
She then introduced the speakers:
- Alice Flavin, Business Development Manager – EcoSurety
- Mark Hilton – Head of Sustainable Business – Eunomia
- Duncan Oswald – Head of Climate Science – Spherics
Alice Flavin, Business Development Manager – EcoSurety
Alice opened by introducing EcoSurety and the work they do. She then shared the approaches EcoSurety have used to support companies in becoming sustainable. She provided a sustainability roadmap, categorised three main focus areas and reminded us that a psyche shift towards conscientious sustainability practices is key. Her lasting messages, seemingly a motif of sustainability, was one of collaboration and unity between businesses being the cornerstone of a greener future.
Mark Hilton – Head of Sustainable Business – Eunomia
Mark’s presentation illustrated the value of changing from traditional business models to circular models. He began by showcasing the value in resource efficiency. He provided case studies of where cost of waste in companies was on par with energy bills; in some studies, cost of waste was in the millions. Mark went on to show through tracking, examining and optimising the manufacturing process, huge saving both fiscally and environmentally can be found.
The second part of his presentation addressed profitability in transitioning from a linear model to a circular model. He highlighted that through a remanufacturing circular economy approach we can reduce reliance on global supply chains, regionalise manufacturing, thus reduce scope 3 carbon emissions, whilst also making money. Marks concluding statement is that this transition isn’t just environmental, it’s profitable.
Duncan Oswald – Head of Climate Science – Spherics
Duncan shared with us the work Spherics have been doing. Spherics have created an intuitive software that analysis companies’ data sheets, extrapolates the key information and creates a carbon footprint analysis of scope one, two and three emissions. The software also has a cost/benefit analysis built in showing companies which areas to target to save the most money and where to target to reduce the greatest emissions. Alongside this Duncan showed us a handful of website that visualise global electricity use and co2 emissions with easy to understand infographics. His lasting message was whilst we are reducing emissions, we need to do it faster and the technology required to do that is here; companies simply need to use it.
60 second pitch
We heard from two intriguing companies:
- Termex
- Warwick University
Closing Statements
To close the event Lauren shared with us the upcoming events and thanked all who attended, who without, these events would not be possible. The event concluded with a final breakout session where great conversation was had by all.
