Sustainable Scotland

Scotland has a well-publicised and ambitious target of reaching net zero emissions of all greenhouse gases by 2045 – five years ahead of the rest of the UK. For this to be achieved, businesses of all sizes must work together to tackle climate change. The latest podcast in The Scotsman’s Sustainable Scotland series, entitled ‘Empowering the Transition’ and in partnership with The Scottish Business Climate Collaboration (SBCC)*, explores this challenge and highlights the opportunities.

The latest Scotsman Sustainable Scotland podcast, in partnership with Royal Bank of Scotland, examines the challenges and opportunities for hospitality SMEs and the help on offer. It focuses on Climate Springboard, a collaboration between Royal Bank and the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute, which works with SMEs to assist them in their sustainability ambitions.

Businesses of all sizes, and particularly small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), should be supported in their efforts to cut carbon emissions as this is good for their bottom line, as well as being of benefit to the environment.

Participants in the latest Scotsman Sustainable Scotland podcast, in partnership with Royal Bank of Scotland, explained how taking action now to reach net zero can give businesses a boost in several ways.

Judith Cruickshank, managing director of the commercial bank at Royal Bank of Scotland and the climate sponsor for the commercial bank across NatWest group, along with Dave Reay, professor of carbon management and education at the University of Edinburgh, and director of Edinburgh Climate Change Institute at the University of Edinburgh, discussed the ways in which businesses can be more sustainable.

With a UK-wide ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars scheduled for 2030, along with the 2045 target to reach net zero carbon emissions in Scotland, the climate change challenge remains at the top of the agenda.

But for disabled people, and their families, the green transport transition raises particular challenges, from the in-accessibility of charging points to a lack of suitable electric vehicle (EV) options. One organisation working with disabled people, car manufactures and other stakeholders to support this switch is Motability Operations. The company runs the Motability car, powered wheelchair and scooter scheme and has just under 70,000 customers across Scotland.

Scotland’s agriculture sector is a vital part of the economy, and a continued focus on sustainability and tackling climate change is needed to ensure its ongoing success and growth.

The annual Royal Highland Show - a celebration of the best of food, farming and rural life - returns to Ingilston in Edinburgh from 22 to 25 June. Each year the topic of sustainability becomes more pertinent as Scotland tries to reach its ambitious target of net zero emissions by 2045.

Developing fisheries along wellbeing economy principles is something that Dr Ingrid Kelling, Assistant Professor of Sustainable and Ethical Seafood at Heriot-Watt University’s Lyell Centre for Earth and Marine Sciences and Director of the Fair Food Hub, is committed to.
In a new episode of The Scotsman’s Sustainable Scotland podcast, in partnership with Heriot-Watt University’s Lyell Centre, a global research institute, Dr Kelling explains the concept of a wellbeing economy and how it impacts fisheries.

Off the east coast of Scotland in the North Sea’s outer Firth of Forth is the site earmarked for one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms. SSE Renewables is behind the development of Berwick Bank which has the potential to significantly boost the nation’s ambitions to reach net zero, advance sustainability and benefit the local and wider economy.

Saving Panmure House: The rich history, sad decline and remarkable renewal of Adam Smith’s final home in Edinburgh.

How Scotland can be a world leader in creating vibrant communities by using private investment to unlock social, environmental and employment benefits. Featuring Dr Lesley Sawers OBE, Scotland and GB commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and a Board member of Crosswind Developments, and Sarah Smith, Director of Communities at Link Group

Professor Adam Dixon, the first Adam Smith Chair in Sustainable Capitalism, discusses how we can harness the way Smith and his contemporaries brought different disciplines together to examine major issues.

Too many commercial developments are built to maximise density for profit rather than designed with the aim of attracting people to live and work there, according to an expert in regeneration and economic development.

Speaking to The Scotsman's Sustainable Scotland podcast is Steve Dunlop, board member at Crosswind Developments and John Watson, chief executive of Crosswind Developments.

Farmers in Scotland are showing enormous creativity to reshape their businesses for the future – despite huge financial pressures, skills shortages and a need to be green to secure funding.

Highlands Rewilding is calling on 'citizen rewilders' to support is ambitions to rewild the Highlands of Scotland, address climate change, tackle the biodiversity collapse and help nature recover

Kirsty Summers, head of workforce and skills at the Scotch Whisky Association, explains how all skills should be green and how such skills are helping the industry reach net zero

Scotland has a huge opportunity to create tens of thousands of jobs in the green energy economy - but the skills system has to adapt quickly and flexibly to ensure that the maximum number of people benefit from the shift.

That's one of the key messages in the latest podcast in The Scotsman's Sustainable Scotland series, Green Skills: Two Little Words, One Massive Opportunity.

Our guests include Lauren Braidwood, National Energy Skills Accelerator Project Manager at Energy Transition Zone Ltd in Aberdeen and Jenny Macdonald, Sector Development and Skills Planning Manager for the Oil and Gas Transition at Skills Development Scotland.

The UK could achieve "something big" in offshore wind if all parties focus on finding solutions to speed up the time it takes to get turbines spinning - and get power into the grid more efficiently.

Scott McCallum, a Partner and renewable energy expert with law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn, examines the challenges facing offshore wind in the latest episode of The Scotsman's Sustainable Scotland podcast.

The Scottish net zero target is five years ahead of the rest of the UK (and much of the world), but experts told The Scotsman's Sustainable Scotland podcast it can be done - but it won’t be easy.

Our host David Lee speaks with: 

Richard Cockburn, Partner and UK Head of Energy at legal firm Womble Bond Dickinson.

Joanne Allday, Strategic Business Development manager at Port of Cromarty Firth.

Ronnie Quinn, Chief Executive of NECCUS.

The trend towards sustainable investment is not a short-term fad - and will become the standard way that people choose to invest their money, experts believe.

Ian Campbell, a Director and Chartered Financial Planner with AAB Wealth, tells the Sustainable Scotland podcast series: "This is not a fad or a short-term investment craze that we're going through. In the future, it won’t even be called sustainable investing, I think it will just be investing and people will assume it is the norm."

We also hear from Jim Whittington of Dimensional, a global asset management firm with almost $700 billion under management.

With the UN climate change summit now well underway in Glasgow and the city abuzz with delegates from across the world, details are slowly emerging of deals and renewed hopes for the future.

But as negotiations and talks continue inside the debating chamber, what is Scotland doing in its own right to avert ecological catastrophe?

Where are the innovators trying new things, the business leaders shaping change or the individuals who, with every switching off at the plug to save on energy, are collectively doing much, much more than they might imagine?

My name is Shaun Milne, a journalist looking at how we as a nation are playing our part in delivering climate action, and hopefully discovering more hurrah, hurrah around the country than blah blah blah.

I’ve been on a journey in my eco campervan taking me from the Highland to the Borders, and  places in between, speaking with people about what they are doing to be more sustainable and their thoughts on the summit itself as I too arrive in the dear green place.

So join me on The Road to Cop 26: Our Journey to Net Zero and Beyond – brought to you in partnership with The Scotsman and Smart Energy GB – available to download wherever you get your podcasts.

In 2019 Scotland made history by becoming the world's first government to declare a climate emergency. Now after Brexit and both a UK and Scottish election, it finds itself at a crossroads over which direction it should go to tackle it.

With Cop26 looming, as the SNP and Greens talk ‘co-operation’ in the face of consternation from the Conservatives, Labour and others, as Westminster considers oil and gas even as the IPCC warns against and business counts the cost of a global pandemic, the decisions made in the coming weeks and months could shape generations.

Among those having their say on the matter was Scotland’s Climate Assembly, established by Scotland’s Climate Change Act (2019), including around 100 people from all walks of life invited to take part in a conversation about what the nation should do.

For this episode Sustainable Scotland host Shaun Milne spoke with Professor Iain Stewart who chaired its evidence group and assembly member Jocelyn Richard after their much anticipated report - which included 81 recommendations for the Scottish Government to act on to tackle the climate emergency - was published.

Jocelyn said: “Some things can only be driven by government. Government has the resources to put in place the funding that we need, the investment that we need and this is considerable to encourage businesses to step up.”

Iain added: “We really need the democratic will of Scottish people that this is the direction of travel we need to go in.”

“It’s the will to make this happen that’s the missing link.”

It is one of Scotland’s largest employers with over 3,600 employees on its books and services 2.46 million households across the country while its operation supplies 1.34 billion litres of drinking water each day.

We spoke to Gordon Reid, General Manager Zero Emissions at Scottish Water, in our Sustainable Scotland podcast, about his organisation’s journey to net zero and the lessons learned so far.

The podcast also heard from David Reay who is the Executive Director at the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute at the University of Edinburgh about how best to effect change within organisations.

Gordon said: “We are already seeing the impact of climate change on rainfall patterns which can lead to greater risk of drought but also intense rainfall which can lead to flooding.

“We developed a 25 year strategy for the business where delivering net zero emissions is one of our three key ambitions.

“We are applying United Nations guidelines on reaching net zero  and are working to decarbonise our activities as much as possible then sustainably sequestering those emissions that we cannot reduce”

One of the world’s leading experts on green finance says COP26 could become the defining moment for turning commitments from global leaders into tangible action over climate change.

James Close, Head of Climate Change at Nat West Group, insists Scotland’s legacy can be assured by convincing major polluters and governments to make historic strides in tackling the emergency.

He predicts that the “power of finance” will play an increasingly important role in ensuring nations really do “step up” before it is too late.

Speaking to The Scotsman’s Sustainable Scotland podcast, he warned: “I don’t this there’s any choice.”

He added: “We all have to step up. This is the decisive decade and the window for dealing with climate change is closing very, very rapidly.

“I don’t like to be an alarmist about a lot of these things, but we are seeing the weather patterns change quite considerably.

“It was 34 degrees up in the Arctic a couple of weeks ago when it was unseasonably cold here in the UK, and that’s because the Gulf Stream is weakening, and the low pressure sits over Europe and the hot air goes up and over into the Arctic.

“There’s no way we can ignore these effects and we have to be really focused on what we can do and what we can achieve, and we have to drive the agenda as quickly and efficiently as we can.”

He believes the end results during negotiations in Glasgow could transpire to be even more ambitious than those of even Paris.

And Close, who previously held a similar position for World Bank during negotiations for the Paris Accord, says there is now real opportunity in the transition from oil and gas to low carbon solutions.

He said: “Very much top of our mind is how do we finance this transition and how do we support the transition, particularly in the North Sea, it is a very real challenge for the Scottish economy.

“But it is amazing to see how energy services businesses that were servicing offshore oil and gas platforms can quickly develop the capabilities and propositions that support offshore wind installation or servicing.

“The power of entrepreneurship and the ability of successful businesses to reinvent themselves as they see the market opportunities, is what I think gives me confidence that we’ll be able to manage that.”

“We need to send those long-term signals so that people can prepare for it, and I think that’s going to be particularly important in energy efficiency and retrofitting homes and housing.

“You want a supply chain that knows there is going to be a high level of demand there for many years.

“They can then invest not just in the infrastructure and kit and equipment that they need, but also in the capabilities, the learning and know how that’s going to be really important to support people making that transition and driving towards that lower carbon future.”

He also believes early adopters have a huge role to play in shifting mindsets, along with incentives and requirements.

The sale of petrol vehicles will be banned from 2030 meaning that all vehicles will be powered by electricity or another renewable source of energy.

In this episode of Sustainable Scotland, we look at the benefits of owning an electric vehicle (EV) in terms of cost and charging points and also explore how an EV can sell electricity back into the grid.

We explore how EVs are key to Scotland reaching its net zero target and why Scotland, it could be argued, is the best place to own one in the UK.

Elinor Chalmers, director at Electric Vehicle Association Scotland, said:

“Scotland is the best place in the UK to own an electric vehicle.

“We have a comprehensive charge point network and there are also interest-free loans available to purchase new electric cars.

“We also have a very green grid meaning you are more than likely to be charging power that comes from renewable sources.”

Scotland can become a major exporter of renewable power as part of its transition away from oil and gas, according to the UK head of Europe’s largest generator of green energy.

Statkraft UK’s Head of Business & Project Development Richard Mardon said the UK has already reached the ‘tipping point’ in its need to move away from fossil fuels.

Speaking on The Scotsman’s Sustainable Scotland podcast about the industry’s future he hailed Scotland’s skilled workforce, along with supportive government policies, as key to unlocking its potential as a global leader for renewables.

The Scotsman's Sustainable Scotland podcast will examine how Scotland's construction sector is rising to the challenge posed by climate change and diminishing resources.

It will speak to head of sustainability at the Robertson Group, Graeme Hannah, and Lucy Black at the Construction Scotland innovation Centre about how views in the industry are changing and how this shift is represented throughout the supply chain.

The discussion, led by presenter by Shaun Milne, will discuss the importance of biodiversity and what our buildings and built-up spaces could look like in the future.

The Scottish hutting tradition is enjoying a surge of popularity as people seek out a simpler way of life more in tune with the environment. But what has fuelled this new love for living for nature, and just how easy is it to get away from it all? Climate journalist Shaun Milne is joined by author and journalist Lesley Riddoch and hutter and campaigner Chris Ballance who share their experiences and also ask does Scotland need a new political party to campaign on the single issue of land reform?

Are we now at a turning point in our attitudes towards climate change and are our intentions now shifting into actions?

In the first episode in The Scotsman’s Sustainable Scotland podcast series, journalist Shaun Milne is joined by Iagan MacNeil, Head of Policy at Smart Energy GB and Frazer Scott, Chief Executive Officer, Energy Action Scotland, to discuss the results of a recent survey of Scotland's attitudes towards the issue.

Sustainable Scotland will focus on the people and organisations that are moving the dial towards making Scotland a more sustainable country to live in.

This episode is part of a paid partnership between The Scotsman and Smart Energy GB.