Founded in 2021, Oh Yes! Net Zero has 170 active members in Hull and East Yorkshire. The initiative was created to discuss how a transition to net zero could be achieved, following the council's declaration of a climate emergency in 2019.
Background
The initiative was created by four founding partners – consumer goods brand Reckitt, Hull City Council, place promotion organisation Future Humber and the University of Hull who came together following the declaration of a climate emergency by the council in 2019 to discuss how they could achieve this ambitious goal.
Recognising that this was a challenge that needed the commitment of both the public and the private sector, the Oh Yes! Net Zero Project was created. It was formally launched in March 2021 at Reckitt R&D in Hull with a keynote address by Lord Sharma, president of COP26.
With 98 per cent of all private sector businesses in Hull and East Yorkshire being small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a key focus of the campaign is to enable a fair transition to net zero by giving smaller firms an equal opportunity to cut their carbon emissions. Small businesses often lack the time, resources or knowledge to implement net zero projects, which is why the support of Oh Yes! Net Zero is so valuable.
About Oh Yes! Net Zero
The project was established to fill a gap in the current services available to primarily SMEs in the city who wanted to start their net zero journey but were not sure where to start.
The governance of the project is through a steering group formed of the founding partners and a leading SME in the city Springfield Solutions and overseen by a programme board comprising a wider set of Oh Yes! Net Zero partners from the public and private sector.
The project is free to join, and members achieve one of three levels of membership based upon how far they are along the net zero journey.
The project has evolved over time from an initial set of working groups focused on the themes in the Hull 2030 Carbon Neutral Strategy as members have discussed what they needed from the project.
As it has evolved at the heart of the project is the importance of mutual support/aid so members learn from the experience and journey of fellow businesses around electric vehicles, heat pumps, sub-metering etc. This enables members to learn from others experience and hopefully avoid some of the pitfalls as well as countering some of the mixed messages that business can come across on the net zero journey.
Services and objectives
One of the key services and innovations of the project has been the development of carbon clinics. These are held throughout the year and provide SME’s with free, expert guidance to help small businesses make progress in understanding and reducing their carbon footprint. In the past 12 months, more than 30 organisations have attended one of the clinics.
The project has also focused upon the importance of addressing net zero from a prosperity perspective for businesses. Members highlighted the increasing focus within tenders for suppliers to have environmental policies and understand their impact on the climate and to be able to show they are acting.
Impact of the project
Members from some of the larger businesses where able to support SME’s through explain not only why this was becoming important but also what was being looked for and what a “good response” looked like.
This insight has fed into the carbon clinics so that we can highlight what might need to be in an action plan but also how their action can be presented in tenders or a spart of a supply chain.
The carbon clinics are also evolving to include support on climate risk and adaptation so that businesses start to think beyond traditional contingency and emergency plans. This also supports businesses with their tendering submissions as well as feeding into accessing funding for business development as the finance sector is increasingly required to ensure its investment is on a transition trajectory.
Hull Truck Theatre carbon clinic experience
Hull Truck Theatre is one of the members that has finalised a carbon reduction plan after attending one of the carbon clinic workshops delivered by local decarbonisation consultancy BACB Renewables.
Hull Truck has chosen to align its 2045 net zero target with Hull City Council’s and has signed up to the Theatre Green Book initiative, a standard agreed by leading voices and bodies across the arts and cultural sectors to deliver environmentally sustainable theatre.
Sarah Barton, production manager at Hull Truck Theatre, said: “We are so fortunate at Hull Truck Theatre that we are in a position to inspire change.”
“Being based in Hull, we have seen the impact of climate change first-hand with increasing temperatures and severe flooding events. We have just as much responsibility to tackle those impacts as any other organisation in the region.
“We can’t be 100 percent perfect all the time, but what we can do is look at the things within our control, that we can impact, and start there.”
Areas of support
While the project is primarily focused upon supporting SME’s an opportunity arose at the start of the project to develop a school based element working with senior school’s in Hull in partnership with the 1851 Trust. The Climate Changemakers programme works with schools to educate and inspire young people to take climate action. The project worked with the 1851 Trust in the first year and since then has been led by Reckitt and Hull City Council and has worked with a cohort of schools that has seen the pupils create videos and take initiatives in their schools and be part of a sustainability competition with the wining school this year visiting Parliament to meet Hull West and Haltemprice MP and Floods Minister Emma Hardy.
The programme has been supported by a grant scheme funded by Reckitt and Hull City Council to help pupils deliver some of their projects as well as develop funding bids supported by a workshop led by the Hull NHS Hospital Trust.
Upcoming projects and aims
The third year of the Climate Changemakers programme will see the project starting to work with primary schools through the Hull and East Yorkshire Children’s University working with ten primaries and culminating in a conference in 2026.
The Oh Yes! Net Zero project has just published its third year report with a forward by former BBC Science Editor David Shukman, a long-standing advocate of Oh Yes! Net Zero who stated that:
“From large to small and across all sectors, it’s fascinating to see how the benefits are being recognised by so many members of Oh Yes! Net Zero. Net Zero isn’t just about carbon, though that’s important. In these uncertain times, it’s also about providing more than that for businesses and other organisations: the inspiration to thrive. So, just as the political tides may sometimes be looking less favourable, there are good reasons to think that net zero is more viable than ever. That’s particularly the case at the local level of a city like Hull where interest and support remain strong.”
The project is continuing to grow its membership and acknowledges that it is only part of the support available for businesses on their net zero journey, and therefore signposts businesses to further support in the city covering for example supply chain development, skills for net zero and financing.
Oh Yes! Net Zero’s innovative approach has been recognised on an international stage at COP 26 and 27 and has been showcased alongside other climate initiatives in cities including Barcelona, Oslo and Buenos Aires at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2024.
Working with C40 Cities the Oh Yes! Net Zero has been highlighted in a publication by The Institute of Engineering and Technology “Empowering Smart Cities through Community-Centred Public Private Partnerships and Innovation” editors Debra Lam and Andrea Fernandez ISBN:978-1-83953-666-3 (PDF).
Contact
For more information about the project please contact Martin Budd Climate Change Manager Hull City Council [email protected]