James Mills is a web developer in the North East of England and founder of Refresh Teesside »
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ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » posted by Jen
Undoubtedly a low-carbon economy packs an attractive business punch: jobs, commercial opportunities, training, and plenty of ways to save money.
Indeed, research from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills estimates that the UK market value of the low carbon and environmental goods and services sector is valued at £112 billion with almost 910,000 jobs.
What has been made crystal clear to us at ClimateNE is that North East businesses are already switched on to the huge potential that climate change can offer.
A survey we ran showed that 43 per cent of North East businesses believe that climate change presents opportunities. A third of businesses believe that extreme weather could present opportunities for their business and 41 per cent felt that the drive to lower carbon emissions and the move to a low carbon economy would present opportunities for the business.
As an independent partnership, we are very much focussed on assisting businesses in the move to a low-carbon and climate resilient economy by working closely with businesses in the region, and offering access to intelligence, information and support through a specially developed website and newsletter for businesses, and networking events.
Another example of how we are working with businesses is the Boardroom v Classroom Challenge which we ran in partnership with the Climate Change Schools Project.
We teamed up three North East businesses with school and college students to work on four exciting projects which included looking at using a decommissioned NASA space shuttle heat shield to recover energy rather than losing it; identifying alternative flood defence systems for the exterior of houses; exploring different crops that can withstand extreme weather while being attractive to hotel guests and diners; and looking at environmentally-friendly ways to camp in luxury, also known as 'glamping'.
Both the businesses and schools found the challenge to be immensely valuable and enjoyable - and plenty of exciting developments are still ongoing. Watch this space for updates!
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