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As part of carbon neutrality week, on Thursday 28th of January The Future Economy Network hosted an evening event entitled ‘Bristol’s Carbon Neutrality Journey’. The event welcomed back representatives from Bristol City Council, Bristol’s One City Environmental Sustainability Board, Finisterre and Burges Salmon to discuss the city’s commitments to carbon neutrality by 2030 and the progress over the last 6 months. The event was well attended by a wide range of delegates who enjoyed some pre-seminar networking before the presentations began.
Katherine Piper, Director of the Future Economy Network, welcomed attendees to the event, which is the fourth follow up since May 2019. Katherine also shared updates about their carbon neutral Hub in Bristol, Future Leap, as well as briefly running through plans for the Festival of Sustainable Business.
First, Alex Ivory, the Climate Change Team Manager at Bristol City Council kicked off the presentations reviewing the council’s involvement and current contributions to the One City Climate Strategy. Alex touched upon how the council aimed to support the wider strategy such as through the implementation of wider pedestrianized areas in the old city and providing support for businesses.
Next the event welcomed Savita Willmott, CEO of the Natural History Consortium and speaking on behalf of the Environmental Sustainability Board. She reviewed the work being done on the Ecological Emergency strategy which was declared in February 2020. Savita highlighted the future goals of the strategy to raise the total percentage of protected land in Bristol to 30% by 2030 up from the current 15%, as well as touched on how awareness of the strategy can be raised.
James Sterling of City Leap then touched upon the future of large-scale energy investment across Bristol. Upcoming scheduled collaboration between the public and private sector to implement low carbon technologies across the city will contribute to both city and council targets for decarbonization. James discussed the long-term benefits and potential expansion of this collaboration with hopes that the project is operational by the first quarter of 2022.
Debbie Luffman, Product Director at Finisterre, spoke about how the B-Corp company have created a lens for product creation which targets zero waste across the business. Whilst acknowledging the difficulties that accompany carbon neutral garment production, Debbie outlined the company’s dedication to a circular model of sustainability through the use of regenerative materials, life extension of products and repair and resale.
Finally, Suzanne Padmore, Chair of the Environmental Committee at Burges Salmon, gave an overview of their strategies and commitment to being net zero by the year 2026. Suzanne explained the importance of collaboration within the legal industry as well as multiple schemes Burges Salmon have undertaken including a carbon offsetting policy and the adoption of science-based reduction targets to reduce their carbon footprint.
The audience were then invited to ask questions and engage with the presentations which saw interesting discussion about the individual projects and future of carbon neutrality in Bristol. Both Zedify and Phoenix Biochar CIC made use of the 60 second pitch opportunity.
A final networking session allowed for further discussion in smaller groups before the event finished. Thank you again to all the speakers and attendees who made the event possible.
Write up completed by Laura O’Brien, MSc Climate Change Science and Policy, University of Bristol