Policy Connect Sustainability team at Edie.Live conference

On Tuesday 17th May, the Policy Connect Sustainability team made their way to the Edie.Live conference in Birmingham. Promising to be a key forum that puts sustainability and energy and resource management at the centre of business, Edie.Live saw 130 companies showcasing their innovations, products and services, with more than 120 speakers hosting sessions across four theatres, including our own Owain Mortimer and Anne-Marie Benoy. Government Opportunities

On day one, Owain, Energy and Climate Change Manager at Policy Connect, spoke at one of the seminars that kick-started the conference, and gave everyone a bit of a stir. The ‘policy landscape and regulatory challenges’ session in the Edie Leaders Theatre included senior speakers from DECC, Carbon Connect, Aldersgate Group, EEF, Carillion plc and Kingfisher.

Owain’s talk covered ‘the carbon question – what does it mean for your business?’ in which he emphasised the importance of clear requirements for businesses to reduce carbon emissions and also how the importance of consistent long-term policy businesses can enable businesses to drive action and innovation.

Anne-Marie Benoy, Manager of the All-Party Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group and the Sustainable Resource Forum, spoke at the ‘Drivers for resource efficiency: What happens if we don’t engage?’ session in the Resource Efficiency Theatre. She spoke alongside experts from Dell, Giraffe Innovation and the Knowledge Transfer Network.

Speaking about ‘the role of policy in driving resource efficiency’, Anne-Marie discussed two APSRG reports: Triple Win, and Link to Link, both of which identified why resource efficiency is key environmentally, socially and economically, and explained what policy meant to the sustainable resource industry.

This was followed by a discussion about the role of policy, policy makers and Government in driving resource efficiency and the importance of business, academia, and NGOs in engaging with policy makers to drive resource efficiency and circular economy up the policy agenda.

The session recognised that businesses are doing innovative work around resource efficiency but that policy, regulation and legislation still pays a key role in driving resource efficiency and sustainability forward as we saw with the Landfill Tax in 1996/7 and WEEE Directive, and will hopefully see out of the EU Circular Economy package.

Anne-Marie highlighted how good, supportive environmental policy drives and encourages investment and that’s why it is important to inform policy and engage with Government and policy makers in this process, as Policy Connect does.

More information ca be found here.

 

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