Time to walk the talk on net-zero

As part of edie's net-zero business guide, Centrica Business Solutions' director Ian Hopkins discusses how businesses can do things differently to deliver on net-zero strategies.


Time to walk the talk on net-zero

It is estimated that one-sixth of the global economy is subject to a net-zero target, but very few organisations have worked out precisely how to deliver on this difficult goal.

The climate emergency clock is ticking. It’s time to convert all the net-zero talk into detailed strategic planning and vigorous action, so what does this involve? Organisations must put sustainability and resource efficiency at the heart of their growth strategies.

This starts with improving energy emissions performance, which will yield major carbon savings. Fortunately, carbon reduction also makes excellent commercial sense. Our Distributed Energy Future Trends research reveals that 61% of the most successful businesses are also clean energy leaders.

Time to do things differently

What’s certain is that the same old methods that have previously delivered decent energy saving results are insufficient for the scale of the net-zero challenge. Many organisations have already picked off most of the ‘low hanging fruit’ energy efficiency opportunities. Now it’s time for something completely different!

Organisations must totally re-engineer their energy strategies to become decentralised energy producers and break free from their dependence on more carbon intense centralised gas and electricity supplies.

Green innovation

Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) are opening up new opportunities to optimise and monetise smart energy management, on-site generation and storage, and electric vehicles.

Centrica Business Solutions has launched the world’s most advanced Virtual Power Plant. Our patented AI VPP solution monetises distributed energy flexibility from the most lucrative markets. It goes way beyond trading battery stored solar power in Demand Side Response (DSR) Markets – to capture multiple market opportunities using multiple assets. Our advanced Electric Vehicle Enablement services are also helping organisations to make the switch to sustainable transport. We provide the complete end-to-end EV infrastructure solution from one single supplier. By using green innovation, businesses can radically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality. Those forward-thinking organisations that are integrating distributed energy solutions across their entire estates and transport networks are profiting both the environment and their own bottom line. They are also improving their brand reputation and improving business resilience by gaining energy security.

Walking the talk

Centrica has embedded green innovation across its global estate and electric vehicle fleet to reduce emissions by 80% over the past decade and retain an A-rating for climate change action and disclosure. We believe in ‘walking the talk’ on sustainability and use the same high tech distributed energy solutions we deploy across our own enterprise to support our customers in developing their own zero-carbon pathways.


edie’s net-zero business guide

What is ‘net-zero’ in the context of business emissions? Which organisations are most suited to adopting net-zero carbon strategies, and what are the business benefits of doing so?

This free-to-download edie Explains guide, produced in association with Centrica Business Solutions, helps sustainability and energy professionals understand exactly how they should adopt net-zero strategies for their businesses; what the benefits are; what the key considerations should be when doing so.

Click here to download the report


Ian Hopkins is director at Centrica Business Solutions

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