In partnership with Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, the University of Kent are hosting a series of Net Zero Pathway to Change workshops to equip Kent businesses with the skills, expertise and confidence they need to take steps towards achieving their net zero goals.Each workshop in the series will be run by leading Kent academics who will take you on a deep-dive into their areas of expertise and offer opportunities for discussion and action planning so that you can apply what you’ve learned to help your business become more sustainable.

Zero Carbon Built Environment – 9am-1pm, 6 July

Led by Professor Marialena Nikolopoulou and Professor Henrik Schoenefeldt from the Division of Arts and Humanities

This session will present a broad but comprehensive overview of the low and zero-carbon, state-of-the-art building technologies and approaches which can be applied to reduce the impact of the building stock of enterprises through upgrading, retrofitting and optimised management of building services (e.g. heating and cooling). It will also serve as a primer for the design and implementation of low carbon newly built stock. The session will explain the importance of monitoring resource consumption as a way to ensure effectiveness of the implemented low carbon features, over the life cycle of buildings.

Reducing Environmental Impact Through Lifecycle Assessment and Smart Product Design

Led by Dr Rob Barker from the Division of Natural Sciences

In these sessions we will introduce the concept of lifecycle assessment for your process or product, discuss the key steps in the assessment and how this can help to reduce the environmental impact of a business.

Part One – 10am – 12pm, 7 July

Part One will introduce the concept of a lifecycle assessment, this will include defining an assessment, discussing the process and exploring how they can be utilised to improve the sustainability of your business. We will briefly discuss some case study examples as a group before going through some take away resources that can be used to evaluate your own approaches in preparation for Session 2.

Part Two – 10am-12pm, 28 July

In Part Two we will discuss the findings of the evaluations conducted by each business in between sessions. Following on from this the session will be split into groups, each group will assess the sustainable improvements that could be conducted within a case study business. We will then regroup to discuss the findings of each group and explore the viability of the factors identified.

Building Foundations for Net Zero Using Data Analytics – 9am-1pm, 11 July

*This will take place at MBA Room, Sibson Building, University of Kent Canterbury Campus*

Led by Professor Thanos Papadopoulos and Dr Lina Simeonova from Kent Business School

Achieving Net Zero is not a one-off event but should be continuously re-assessed and sustained. The final step is a Strong Change Management Culture. Achieving Net Zero requires changes in technology and business as usual, and therefore organisation need to develop resilience and agility and move towards a maturity stage of technology adoption.

Sustainability – a Deep Dive into Making the Right Choices – 9am-1pm, 12 July

Led by Dr Rob Barker from the Division of Natural Sciences

In this session we will conduct a deep-dive into the effect that material choices has on the sustainability of businesses. We will introduce the science behind common materials used within your business and how these can be exchanged for more sustainable choices as well as exploring what exactly causes these materials to be bad for the environment. This will adopt a cradle-to-grave approach exploring how to innovate packaging and product design to positively impact your business. We will also investigate the effects that the new plastic tax regulations will have on small businesses in the long-term and how making sustainable choices now will beneficially impact your business in the future.

Behaviour Change for Net Zero – 9am-1pm, 18 July

Led by Professor Robbie Sutton, Dr Tim Hopthrow and Dr Hannah Swift from the Division of Human and Social Sciences

Adapting and changing people’s behaviour to be more environmentally friendly can play a crucial role in reducing carbon emissions and achieving net zero targets. Behaviour change interventions can be both time and cost effective. This workshop will introduce you to key theories in psychology and behavioural sciences that inform a ‘framework’ that can be easily used to create and develop effective behaviour change interventions. It will provide case study examples of interventions, including some we have developed and tested to reduce energy consumption, and improve air quality (by reducing engine idling). Importantly, the workshop will also cover some of the psychological barriers to carbon reduction that persist.

As this project is funded by the UK Community Renewal Fund, the workshops are free and open to all businesses, with opportunities for qualifying businesses to receive up to £5k to access University expertise to achieve their net zero goals.