Businesses address climate change challenges at summit

Businesses from across the region recently joined academics and industry specialists at a major summit organised by East Midlands Chamber to tackle the barriers to achieving Net Zero.

Held in partnership with the University of Derby, the East Midlands Sustainability Summit, which took place earlier this month, aimed to address the challenges of climate change ‘preparation’.

Hosted by the university, the summit featured workshops, seminars and presentations designed to unpick hurdles faced by firms in their journey toward becoming more sustainable.

Stuart Dawkins, president of East Midlands Chamber, who opened the summit, said: “To see so many businesses, of different types and sizes gathered at this summit was a welcome sight and really underlines just how seriously the East Midlands is taking its approach to sustainability.

“I get the feeling no-one is under any pretence about the obstacles that can make mitigating against climate change daunting.

“The summit shared best practice, saw research the chamber has carried out with the University of Derby and workshops to help break down difficulties and find solutions.”

Richard Blackmore, the chamber’s director of policy and insight, said: “Getting East Midlands businesses together to overcome the challenges around becoming more sustainable is an important step toward achieving Net Zero, but we should remember that the summit was also an excellent opportunity to focus on the economic growth potential for businesses that get the strategy right.

“Keeping the momentum of the sustainability journey front and centre of all business operation is essential, as putting it on the back burner to just worry about another day isn’t an option.”

At the summit, Dr Polina Baralova, the university’s associate professor of strategy and sustainability, shared details of research carried out by the university and the chamber into Green Growth Trends.

Findings included three quarters of large businesses reporting that they pursue Green Growth, while half of small businesses did.

Dr Baralova said: “My advice to businesses would be to think a little bit about how to grow sustainably, which we refer to as Green Growth.

“So, if you have a number of products and services that you trade on the market and they are having green credentials – as in they allow the general public, your customers or suppliers to reduce their carbon footprint and support an environmentally friendly agenda.

“At the same time, you also need to start thinking about your decarbonization initiatives and reducing carbon, so those two elements go hand to hand. You can’t really have one without another.”