MP talks up trailblazing Black Country businesses as Government doubles down on green energy commitments
Businesses in the Stourbridge constituency are "jumping on opportunities for retrofit" - Labour MP Cat Eccles has said as she talked up companies and institutions backing the drive for clean energy in an article for LabourList.
Meridan Steel, HBS Foods and Stourbridge Glass Museum were among businesses and organisations highlighted by the MP as she aired her thoughts on carbon zero plans and told of her own home retrofit.
"The reality on the ground is quite different from what net zero sceptics seem to think. Businesses in my constituency are jumping on opportunities for retrofit," the MP said as she described factory visits, a Lottery award for sustainable practice for Stourbridge Glass Museum, which switched to a pioneering renewable-powered blast furnace, and the approval of the Stourbridge PowerHaus eco-apartments which will be built to the most rigorous low energy standards.
"Stourbridge is setting a bit of a benchmark, showing people things they thought weren’t possible, while keeping our heritage pride alive," she said as she told how she and her husband have given their 1930s semi-detached home an energy efficiency refurbishment - saving more than 75 per cent on bills in the first year.
Cat also highlighted how steel processors and stock-holders Meridan Steel, on the Grazebrook Industrial Park, Brierley Hill, procures 100 per cent renewable energy for all its operations and is committed to reaching Net Zero emissions across all scopes by 2040.
The company encourages environmental performance improvement among its suppliers and is appealing to neighbouring firms to join them in the transition to low carbon, with the ambition of becoming the first retrofitted renewable-powered industrial estate.
She also referenced nut and dried fruit processors HBS Foods and how solar panels and heat pumps at their Netherton plant and storage facility have made a significant difference to costs.
Plans by Stourbridge Community Land Trust and GreenSquareAccord to build for a car-free development built to the highest Passivhaus low energy standards were also highlighted by the MP who said the appetite she's seeing in Stourbridge for carbon cutting projects and developments "strongly counters the narrative that the green transition is a woke, liberal agenda, when people are actively doing it and liking it".
The MP was writing for politics analysis and debate forum LabourList on the day Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband said the UK would go “all in” on clean energy and climate policy, as he presented the Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan.
Under the plan, the Government has reasserted its commitment to decarbonise the UK's electricity supply by 2030 and forecasts 400,000 new clean energy jobs over the next five years.
