Sustainable Business & Solar Summit - presentation detail

The presentations and video recordings for each session are now available below.

Scroll down to see the recordings and slides from each presentation. Or, click a link in the programme to go straight to a specific session.

The programme

09.30 Welcome: David Tutt & Caroline Ansell
09.50 Working together to create a Net Zero neighbourhood: Ollie Pendered
10.05 Carbon reduction – Strategies for businesses: Shelaine Siepel, Ian Fitzpatrick & Matt Roberts
10.35 Enabling the transition:
Net Zero 360 (workshops and carbon accounting tool), green innovation, business grants and subsidies including LoCASE: Mark Riminton
11.05 Coffee break – networking
11.30 Addressing energy use in Victorian and Edwardian buildings: Joanna Saady
11.45 Making waves:
Case studies of businesses taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint and energy costs: Matthew Knight, Sam Keam & Matthew Bird
12.15 Panel discussion: How do we cut costs and get greener? Christina Ewbank, Patrick Allcorn, Richard Garland, Adam Bastock, Shelaine Shiepel & Joanna Saady
13.00 Lunch
13.45-14.05 Solar power: overview – latest technology, opportunities & challenges: Melissa Briggs, Richard Wise, Mitchell Van Oosten
14.05 Sussex solar: Opportunities & challenges of installing solar-PV in the south-east:
Battery storage, electrics, connecting to the network: Matt Woodward & Neil Madgwick
14.30 Community Energy: Overview – how does it work? : Kayla Ente & Chris Rowland
15:00 Leading by example: case studies of solar installations : Ed Hussey, Paul Vine & Richard Watson
15:30 Tea break – networking
15:45 Panel discussion: How can we enable solar PV on commercial and institutional buildings? : Lord Ralph Lucas, Richard Watson, Clare Bottle, Leigh Palmer, Kayla Ente, Chris Rowland & Paul Vine
16:20 Closing remarks : David Tutt, Caroline Ansell, Jim Murray

Morning

09.30 Welcome

David Tutt, Leader of Eastbourne Borough Council;
Caroline Ansell, MP Eastbourne and Willingdon

09.50 Working together to create a Net Zero neighbourhood:

The big picture: challenges and opportunities. Countdown to zero-carbon 2030

Ollie Pendered, Chief Executive of Community Energy South

Ollie Pendered is a director of Community Energy England and Chief Executive at Community Energy South. Ollie works closely with the community energy sector, local authorities and the energy industry, forming strategic partnerships to support the transition towards a low carbon future.

10.05 Carbon reduction - strategies for business

Shelaine Siepel, The Sustainable Business Trust
Shelaine’s presentation slides

Shelaine is Managing Director of the Sustainable Business Trust, a not-for-profit Community Interest Company that works with businesses, social enterprises and public sector organisations to help them reduce costs and environmental impact through improving resource efficiency.

Ian Fitzpatrick, Eastbourne Borough Council
Ian ‘s presentation slides

As Deputy Chief Executive for Eastbourne and Lewes Councils, Ian has a wealth of experience in large scale regeneration and housing delivery, with a particular focus on Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). He is also lead officer for sustainability and community wealth strategies for both Councils. In 2012 he oversaw one of the first roll outs of solar PV across Council housing and his team previously won the UK Housing Award for Outstanding Developer of the year. More recently, he instigated work with Brighton University and stock holding Councils across Sussex to develop smarter ways to decarbonise Council Housing at scale.

Ian will be talking about the Decarbonising Our Housing Stock project and how the buying power of those involved can be leveraged to enable mass solar rollout.

Matt Roberts, East Sussex College Group
Matt’s presentation slides

Matt Roberts is Co-Head of Green Technology and Decarbonisation at East Sussex College. Together with his colleague, Damian Richards, he operates the ESCG Training Hub.

The Renewable Training Hub was set up in October 2022 to provide design and technical education/training in renewable technologies and decarbonisation.

It is envisaged that as well as a formal training/education offering, the Training Hub becomes a focus point for local groups aiming to further the UK’s move towards net zero

Questions and Answers 1

10.35 Enabling the transition

Net Zero 360 (workshops and carbon accounting tool), green innovation, business grants and subsidies including LoCASE:

Mark Riminton, Green Growth Platform, University of Brighton.
Mark Riminton’s presentation slides

Mark is responsible for Clean Growth UK’s Rapid Decarbonisation Consortium, a forum in which large corporates collaborate on solving problems on the road to Net Zero. Mark leads the Clean Growth Fast Track, an accelerator for SMEs bringing low carbon products & services to market. A former consultant & business coach, Mark has experience of working with businesses & investors. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Net Zero 360 is the UK’s first full-service net-zero business package. Find out how you can align your business to net-zero with workshops, action planning support and funding.

11.30 Addressing energy use in Victorian and Edwardian buildings

Joanna Saady, Ecotecture Ecological Designs Ltd
Joanna Saady’s presentation slides
Joanna calls herself an Eco Architect and Historic Building Expert. She was an early pioneer of green building, joining the Association of Ecological Conscious Building (AECB) in 1995 after qualifying as an architect, going on to serve as a Trustee at the time the AECB set up the Passivhaus Trust in the UK. Her unique skill set also includes Post Graduate MSc in Energy Efficient Building and Conservation of the Historic Environment, joining the Institute of Historic Building Conservation in 2020 and currently serving on the South East branch as Chair.

Ecotecture has a varied portfolio covering new bespoke houses, retrofit, Listed Buildings, master planning, community and commercial projects. Joanna will be sharing her experience of older buildings, looking at how they consume energy and what we can do to address it.

Here is Jo’s video showing how she went about retrofitting her Victorian office:

11.45 Making waves

Case studies of businesses taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint and energy costs:

Matthew Knight, Akro Valve
Matt Knight’s presentation slides

Akro Valve is a family-owned British manufacturing business, founded in Westham in 1983, now based in Polegate. They manufacture specialist flow control valves for the process and water industries and also supply a wide range of pipe fittings and tools for the repair and maintenance of water distribution networks.

Working with the Green Growth Platform, Akro Valve used LoCASE fundings to help with investment in new manufacturing equipment, and in energy efficiency improvements to their building.

Sam Keane, Zedify
Sam Keam’s presentation slides

Zedify is a sustainable delivery service that uses light electric vehicles such as zero-emission cargo bikes, which help cut congestion and create quieter, cleaner and safer streets and more attractive and liveable towns and cities.

Established in 2018 by Rob King and Brighton-based Sam Keam, Zedify have pioneered and normalised the use of hyper-local hubs and zero-emission vehicles for “last mile” delivery within towns and cities. They have made excellent progress, with 10 UK city bubs already launched and thousands of zero-emission deliveries carried out each day.

Matthew Bird, Lewes Council
Matt Bird’s presentation slides

Matthew Bird is the Cabinet Councillor for Sustainability and Climate Change for Lewes District Council. He has responsibility at the Council for projects including the decarbonisation of social housing stock, rolling out electric vehicle charging points, nature-based solutions and natural flood management as well as active travel, air quality projects, water quality and the Ouse Valley Climate Action Partnership. In his day job he is Climate Lead at Sussex Wildlife Trust responsible for carbon reduction and climate change strategy and Deputy Mayor of Lewes. Matthew will talk about his experience to date in setting up an E-cargo bike scheme in Lewes.

Question & Answer session from Making Waves.

12.15 Panel discussion: How do we cut costs and get greener?

Chair: Christina Ewbank, Eastbourne UnLtd, Chamber of Commerce;

Christina Ewbank is the CEO of Eastbourne’s Chamber of Commerce.

Richard Garland, Gradient Consulting;
Adam Bastock, Small99;
Patrick Allcorn, Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy;Patrick Allcorn is the Head of Local Net Zero at BEIS.

Shelaine Siepel, The Sustainable Business Partnership CIC;
Joanna Saady, Ecotecture Ecological Designs Ltd

Afternoon

13.45 Solar power overview - latest technology, opportunities & challenges

Melissa Briggs, Bee Solar Tech Ltd
Melissa Briggs’ presentation slides

Melissa Briggs is CEO of Bee Solar Tech Ltd. Bee Solar advises on appropriate solar technology to suit your property and power requirements and can deliver a package that will contain everything needed to start generating renewable energy from the sun, including Heliomotion solar tracking systems, ground screws, panels, inverters and battery storage.
Melissa was awarded the PEA award for energy in late 2020 (beating Elon Musk) and also a Green Hero Award.

Melissa has been working with the original inventors of Heliomotion Tracking Systems since 2018 and now manufactures the systems in England. Melissa will tell us more about these re-locatable systems, which generate 40-45% more power than conventional static systems.

Richard Wise, Polysolar
Richard Wise’s presentation slides

Polysolar is an award winning Cleantech business producing transparent solar PV glass. Polysolar manufactures innovative Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) solutions with solar glass for carports, canopies, building façades, skylights and urban infrastructure. Polysolar’s unique technology solutions is already being deployed worldwide to meet the growing demand for localised energy generation and energy efficient buildings and infrastructure.’

Mitchell Van Oosten , Naked Energy
Mitchell Van Oosten’s presentation slides

Naked Energy are accelerating the transition to net zero carbon by decarbonising heat – responsible for over half (51%) of all energy demand globally. They are a UK based company that design and manufacture a suite of highly innovate Solar Thermal Products. Mitchell Van Oosten will introduce their Virtu products which combine solar thermal with PV and produce 275w of heat with 70w of electrical energy.

14.05 Sussex Solar: opportunities & challenges of installing solar PV in the south-east

Matt Woodward, OHM Energy

Matt is Project Manager and Technical Lead Engineer at OHM Energy. Matt will give an overview of current battery storage technology and how it can help you reduce your energy bills.H

Neil Madgwick, UK Power Networks
Neil Madgwick’s presentation slides

UK Power Networks is the country’s biggest electricity distributor, connecting customers to the network and making sure the lights stay on for more than eight million homes and businesses across London, the South East and the East of England.

Neil Madgwick works in the connections business and has been supporting customers connect low carbon technologies to the electricity network for the past ten years from large solar farms to domestic electric vehicles and heat pumps.

Any energy generating, or electric charging installation will require connection to our power networks. Neil will talk you through essential considerations before you start your project.

14.30 Community Energy Overview - how does it work?

Case studies from the South East

Kayla Ente, BHESCo &
Chris Rowland OVESCo/Community Energy South
Kayla Ente and Chris Rowland’s presentation slides

Kayla is founder and CEO of Brighton and Hove Energy Services Co-operative (BHESCo), a not-for-profit social enterprise dedicated to accelerating the transition to affordable, community-owned clean energy.

BHESCo design, finance, and project manage the installation of energy saving and renewable energy technologies on behalf of our customers. In most cases, projects costs are met through BHESCo’s innovative ‘Pay As You Save’ finance initiative, meaning there is no upfront cost to customers.

Since 2015 BHESCo have completed 58 community energy projects which will deliver savings of £2 million for customers in addition to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by over 7,000 tonnes.
BHESCo’s typical customers include business owners, schools, community centres, leisure centres, and homeowners.

Chris is CEO of the Ouse Valley Energy Services Company CIC (OVESCO) and he has been working in the community energy sector for 15 years. OVESCO pioneered one of the UK’s first community share offers for solar, which installed 98kW of PV at the Harveys Brewery depot in Lewes and went on to win a 2014 Ashden award.

Chris is also a director of Community Energy South, which was set up to mentor new energy groups and a Director of Meadow Blue Community Energy, a 5MW solar farm near Chichester. OVESCO is currently working on several projects including CommuniHeat with UKPN and a 17MW community solar farm in the Lewes District.

Kayla and Chris will co-present on the role of Community energy companies and looking at issues such as what local energy means for Net Zero and how we can get there.

15.00 Leading by example: case studies of solar installations

Ed Hussey, SAS Energy
Ed Hussey’s presentation slides

Ed Hussey is the Business Accounts Manager at SAS Energy. Ed has been working for the company for more than 11 years now. Over the years he held various job roles, working closely with the operations and sales team. For the past year, his role within the company evolved, and he is now the Business Accounts Manager, taking care of our clients and their energy requirements. In his presentation, Ed will introduce SAS Energy and the areas of work we can help our clients with. He will also talk about 2 installations delivered locally to Eastbourne – Cavendish School and the University of Sussex.

Paul Vine, OHM Energy
Paul Vine’s presentation slides

Paul is Director of OHM Energy Solutions Ltd, providing independent energy management consultancy to small and large organisations. Long term clients include Kamsons & Rossetts Mercedes.

Paul will take you through some solar installation journeys, including one very close to home. His case studies highlight how much can be achieved when local businesses work together.

Richard Watson, Energise Sussex Coast
Richard Watson’s presentation slides

Energise Sussex Coast is a community benefit cooperative. Their mission is to act co-operatively to tackle the climate crisis and energy injustice through community owned renewable power and energy saving schemes.

They provide one to one intensive energy advice to their clients, giving them the time and support they need to ease the burden of energy vulnerability and injustice.

You’ll hear about the innovative schemes around community energy, including the 1066 Energy Campaign, which is transforming the way we generate and use energy locally and influencing the national agenda on how communities can tackle the twin problems of energy injustice and climate chang

15.45 Panel discussion: How can we enable solar PV on commercial & institutional buildings?

How can we enable solar PV on commercial and institutional buildings?

Chair Lord Ralph Lucas

Ralph Lucas is an active member of the House of Lords. He has served on committees that addressed digital skills, the regeneration of seaside towns and digital technology & democracy. With his wife, Antonia Lucas, Ralph set up the Making Natural History project, using creative works to highlight environmental issues i an beyond Eastbourne.

Richard Watson, Energise Sussex Coast

Richard Watson is a founder of Energise Sussex Coast. He was awarded the OBE in 2016 for services to the community of Sussex. Previously he worked at the Environmental Change Institute in Oxford. He is a director of the Schools Energy Co-op and Community Energy South.

Clare Bottle, UK Warehousing Association

Clare is CEO for UK Warehousing Association. Clare was one of the founder members of Women in Logistics. In recent years she has also been a trustee of CILT (UK) and of Transaid, UKWA’s nominated charity. They provide professional business advice and strategic business development support to their members.

In 2022 UKWA commissioned a report to investigate the case for installing rooftop solar-PV systems in the warehousing sector. It summarises the potential benefits for the sector’s key players and the overall national and local benefits.

Leigh Palmer, Lewes & Eastbourne Councils

Leigh Palmer is Head of Planning for Lewes and Eastbourne Councils.

Kayla Ente, BHESCo

Chris Rowland OVESCo

Chris is CEO of the Ouse Valley Energy Services Company CIC (OVESCO) and he has been working in the community energy sector for 15 years. OVESCO pioneered one of the UK’s first community share offers for solar, which installed 98kW of PV at the Harveys Brewery depot in Lewes and went on to win a 2014 Ashden award.

Chris is also a director of Community Energy South, which was set up to mentor new energy groups and a Director of Meadow Blue Community Energy, a 5MW solar farm near Chichester.

Paul Vine, OHM Energy Solutions Ltd

Paul is Director of OHM Energy Solutions Ltd, providing independent energy management consultancy to small and large organisations. Long term clients include Kamsons & Rossetts Mercedes.