CEO Today UK Awards 2021

25 CEO TODAY UNITED KINGDOM AWARDS 2021 Energy network is to support others on their low- carbon journey. There are quite a few of our customers, both household and business customers, who respond quickly; they know what they want, they come to us needing a new connection or new capacity, and our job is to act quickly to provide what they need. Then there are others who do not know what to do. How can we encourage them to act? What information can we give them? How can we help them in their low- carbon journey? We have done a lot of work on innovation to be able to make some of the changes that we talked about earlier to enable new technology and how we manage and operate the network. We are trying to do this at the lowest possible cost. What we are trying to do is make sure that nobody gets left behind in this low-carbon journey. Finally, our job is to make sure that we slow nobody down in their low carbon journey. We sense that it is starting to gather momentum and we must be able to respond. So we need to deploy our resources efficiently and keep an eye on the pace of change. Even two years ago, electric vehicle sales were quite slow. They grew a lot last year, and already this year they have doubled on what they were in 2020. Keeping a close eye on the shifting pace of change enables us to think about our resources and about how well we are organised to be able to respond. In terms of decarbonising our own business, we are making progress. Recently, the Combined Authority in Manchester committed to a net-zero target of 2038, and we agreed to support them in their ambition. One of the ways we thought we could help would be to deploy some of the technology – take a risk on it just to see how well it works and then use that as an exemplar for others to learn from. We have picked two of our depots and are deploying different innovations to turn them into net-zero depots. Initiatives such as solar, improving energy efficiency, installing ground-source heat pumps or wind turbines, and putting in energy management control systems. We are taking measurements now to assess their effectiveness. We will share that information with the business community in the North West. We have also started to change our vehicle fleet to electric power, buying electric cars and small vans. Later, we will move to larger vans and HGVs when the technology is ready. In addition to electrifying our fleet, we are also measuring CO2 emissions for our entire business. In fact, in the last ten years our CO2 emissions have dropped by over 25%. The business is committed to net zero by 2038 at the latest. What is the impact of Electricity North West on your region? Some of the work we have done has started to support political leaders in the North West, helping them understand the challenge of the low-carbon transition. By working together with other utilities, we have all increased our understanding of what needs to happen. Some of the things that we are starting to share have had a positive impact on businesses already. It is early days yet, but that momentum is starting to grow. For instance, we have a contracting business that is now starting to work with customers and client businesses to help them with their low-carbon transition. Some of the expertise that we have been developing is now being deployed for the benefit of others. I think we have had quite an impact on our own employees and contractors, because they can now see how seriously we are taking it. In our business we established a scheme for company cars which encourages electric vehicles. This is starting to bear fruit as the electric vehicle uptake is increasing. I am also getting more and more tricky questions from the workforce about what more we should be doing which is great! I think a good leader is open to being challenged by their workforce, which can help speed up the change process. Nobody has a monopoly on driving innovation and good ideas. I also think we are helping the region because we are seen as a reliable and credible collaboration partner, so people trust us. And when people trust you, they are prepared to take more risks. We are starting to see that in the projects that we are doing as well. I think the work that we have done, particularly with the charities, with those in vulnerable circumstances, is also starting to have quite an impact. We committed a quarter of a million pounds last year to work with Citizens Advice in Manchester, and the savings and the good that that generated for customers in vulnerable circumstances has been impressive. We are going to try and leverage similar or more funding in the future along a similar vein, collaborating with charities and agencies to help those in vulnerable circumstances. And again, it is satisfying for the workforce to be involved in that sort of work, which may be one of the reasons why the climate scores are good – because people feel that they are helping others. “Even two years ago, electric vehicle sales were quite slow. They grew quite a lot last year, and already this year they have doubled on what they were in 2020.”