The economic downturn and the impact of the recent unusual weather conditions in the UK have served to focus attention on resources and their use. Many businesses are now asking questions about the resources they rely on and how they contribute to commercial success.
Andy Hartley is programme director for Resource Efficiency Yorkshire (REY), a not-for-profit organisation which works to increase the competitiveness of regional business through resource efficiency and chair of ReMaDe Network UK. He established the GlassAction forum for glass reprocessors and established partnerships between the glass industry and bodies such as WRAP, LARAC and Defra.
In Yorkshire and Humber, REY is working with the private, public and third sector to help them answer these questions. We are using a partnership approach to share knowledge, skills and investment to help businesses develop solutions to resourcing issues. Solutions that help foster growth and development, and allow organisations to profit from resource efficiency.
We know pressure on resource use is set to increase: science tells us we are locked into 30 years of temperature rise and a hundred years of sea level rises. And the Climate Change Bill will make the UK the first country in the world to have legally-binding targets to cut emissions. With a target of 80% reductions in emissions by 2050, this is globally significant legislation.
We are on a trajectory to a low carbon economy. And we must seek to generate the maximum economic benefit from the low carbon industrial revolution.
In Yorkshire and Humber, REY is striving to create a new generation of “green collar” jobs. This is to ensure the region enjoys a share of the $3 trillion per annum and 25 million jobs that the green global market is expected to generate in the next 30 years.
I see businesses in my region demonstrating confidence, vision and commitment to new ideas and new operating practices. The partnerships REY is building in the business community will see this attitudinal capital turned into regional assets: globally competitive manufacturing and service industries founded on sustainable principles.
The future may seem all gloom and doom – but my message to business is that the future is all green and growth.
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