Carbon Zero Solutions launches

Dr Martin Blake today announced the launch of Carbon Zero Solutions (CZS) Limited. CZS supports executives and their organisations by providing leadership in the inception, development and successful deployment of energy efficiency programmes that improve profitability and reduce environmental and social impact. “It’s a multiple win,” claims Dr Blake.

“By investing, businesses stand to save money, reduce their carbon footprint, reduce their exposure to energy market volatility and, in doing so, improve their brand and customer acceptance.”

Dr Blake was until recently the architect of, and inspiration behind, the award-winning Carbon Management Programme at Royal Mail, the UK’s biggest postal services company. As Head of Sustainability Team for seven years, he oversaw a multi-pronged strategy in the areas of energy reduction and efficiency, waste management, water conservation and workplace diversity. Together this team of energy experts is credited with reducing UK Royal Mail Group’s annual energy bill by over £30million.

When Dr Blake left the Royal Mail at the end of October 2010, he left behind a legacy that is recognised as one of the best energy management programmes in the world, with 75 national and regional awards. “I wanted to share our learning and utilise the knowledge and experience of this team by making an impact on the most challenging environmental problems faced by some of the largest companies in the world,” said Dr Blake.

Speaking about the launch of CZS, Dr Blake suggested that UK Boards are poorly served by many ‘environmental consultancies’ that put compliance and marketing of green credentials before energy related savings. “In my time at Royal Mail Group, our main objective was to deliver bottom-line savings. The Board was rightly concerned about our environmental and social impact and the need to be sustainable, but there is absolutely no doubt that £30million in annual energy savings was an extremely significant motivator, thereby delivering a double win.”

Dr Blake continued, “There are many examples of boards that have not pursued the benefits of energy reduction because they are being sold on outputs that cannot be adequately quantified or explained. Too many initiatives have been conceived and implemented in a piecemeal fashion. Individually they may have been effective, but unless taken together within a wider coordinated programme, it is unlikely they will each deliver quantifiable ROI. It is therefore not surprising that some board directors feel ambivalent or wary.”

CZS brings together the same experts that Dr Blake convened at the Royal Mail Group, including Professor David Strong, a globally renowned practitioner in sustainable building design and refurbishment, Robert Evans, an expert in the field of low carbon transport, together with experts in the fields of energy wholesaling, energy data management, and a range of other carbon and energy reduction disciplines.

Nick Allen, Managing Director of CZS commented, “The CEO’s of large UK firms must now start viewing sustainability as a competitive tool. Their commitment and leadership is imperative, as the most significant opportunities of a low carbon strategy cannot be realised without full management and workforce engagement. Commitment from the boardroom to the factory floor is essential to achieve tangible and long lasting results.”

The team consists of:
• Dr Martin Blake, Executive Chairman – Dr Blake is an internationally recognised expert on carbon reduction. As ex-Head of Sustainability at the UK Royal Mail Group for over eight years, Dr Blake led a successful carbon reduction transformation strategy that reduced Royal Mail’s annual energy bill by more than £30 million. He has a track record of large scale corporate transformation and has developed programmes and influenced high profile stakeholders within Government and NGOs, as well as the postal, construction, healthcare, oil & gas and charity sectors.

• Professor David Strong, Lead Advisor for the Built Environment – Professor Strong is one of the most influential figures in sustainable building design and refurbishment and he specialises in low/zero carbon buildings. He established the UK Green Building Council and was presented with the “Building Sustainability Leadership” Award in 2007.

• Robert Evans, Lead Advisor for Transport & Logistics – Robert is a recognised expert in the field of low carbon transport. He is CEO of Cenex (Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell Technologies) and has more than 20 years’ experience in innovation and integration of new environmental technologies in transport applications, including low carbon vehicle emissions control.

• Bill Wright, Programme Leader – Bill was previously Corporate Energy & Environment Manager of the John Lewis Partnership (covering Waitrose & John Lewis department stores). He was responsible for the procurement and efficient use of all utilities and during his time there, his team achieved a 20% improvement in energy efficiency.

• Nick Allan, Managing Director – Nick is a corporate change specialist with more than 20 years’ experience in helping companies in the financial services, technology and energy sectors with corporate transformation, building workforce capability and strengthening and aligning leadership.

The CZS team will utilise Dr Blake’s carbon reduction methodology that he created whilst at the Royal Mail, providing programme components ranging from board engagement and programme definition through to full programme development and implementation. CZS predicts that it can save most organisations between 20% and 30% of the cost of their energy bills.

“Our team is accustomed to operating at board-level. It is the board that must articulate, embrace and lead the programme. We talk to many Directors who believe they are running a carbon or energy management programme, to then find it is contained within a silo somewhere in facilities and with little or no company-wide mandate. Worse still, most think that carbon and energy management programmes are a cost, when in reality they should always be cost neutral and bottom-line positive,” said Dr Blake.

“I have never articulated or deployed a programme that has not delivered bottom-line savings, and neither do I intend to start doing so now, because if you have not saved money, you have not saved energy. The CZS team members are not simply environmental evangelists; we are experts in the key disciplines that enable companies with multiple sites, complex property portfolios, large transport fleets, manufacturing plants, or long supply chains to drive real and measurable bottom-line savings,” he concluded.

For more information, please visit www.carbonzerosolutions.com