The digital and physical Zero Carbon Tour aims to illustrate the phenomenal array of actions the business community is taking to address the climate crisis. It is taking the net zero carbon message to the business community across the UK in support of the UN-backed Race to Zero Campaign. This is the world’s largest alliance of actors committed to halving global emissions by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest.
Prior to hitting the road in the 100% electric Tour coach, affectionately nicknamed the Carbon Battle Bus we held our first official stop virtually with hosts University of Greenwich. This was a great opportunity to encourage ambitious net zero targets within the education sector, an industry that has a critical role to play in tackling the climate crisis.
In addition to providing direct training across the growing number of green jobs, as well as integrating environmental knowledge in curriculum at younger years, the sector has an opportunity to lead by example and reduce their own carbon footprint.
University of Greenwich has set an ambitious climate change agenda and, on the day of the event, spoke about their target of net zero carbon by 2030. The University has also announced a new course on climate change, Climate Change BSc, that is designed to provide scientific knowledge and a practical skillset around climate mitigation and action.
Alongside University of Greenwich’s Head of Sustainability Simon Goldsmith, we heard from Sustainability Manager at Sodexo Stephen Last and Director of Sustainable Business at Baxterstorey Mike Hanson in the Sustainability Open Mic session.
To officially mark the debut of the Carbon Battle Bus, and the first of our physical events on the Zero Carbon Tour, we visited the Houses of Parliament with MPs Andrew Griffith (Member for Arundel and South Downs and the government’s Zero Carbon business champion) and Nusrat Ghani (Member for Wealden, and my local MP), Lord Redesdale and our Tour sponsors Prologis and Fully Charged.
The following day we held our first physical Tour event with hosts Heart of the City in partnership with the City of London Corporation at Guildhall. The Sustainability Open Mic Session for this event included Founder and CCO of Fora Katrina Larkin and Policy Advisor, Corporate Governance at the Institute of Directors Amin Aboushagor.
We concluded the day, and this section of the Tour, with an inspiring networking session with participants, an opportunity to connect with others across various industries who are on the same route to net zero.
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From there, we headed off on the next part of our journey to reach Cornwall and our partners at the Eden Project in time for the G7 Summit.
You can read about this part of the Tour here. You can also read about our final stops visiting members back in London and essex here.
