A new event is set to highlight opportunities for private and public sector organisations to benefit from Glasgow’s drive towards a low-carbon economy.
The first BaseGlasgow show, which will be held in the SECC, Glasgow on Tuesday 22nd November, will showcase the city’s sustainability plans with addresses from speakers including Lord Smith of Kelvin, Glasgow City Council Leader Gordon Matheson, and Scottish Enterprise Chief Executive Lena Wilson.
The launch of BaseGlasgow follows the ongoing success of the BaseLondon event, which aims to promote the business opportunities offered by low-carbon initiatives in the UK capital. The second annual BaseLondon event, held in July, attracted close to 600 attendees.
Andrew Dowding, CEO of Base Communications, said: “Increasingly, Scotland, particularly Glasgow, is making the shift to a low-carbon economy and, in doing so, creating wide-ranging opportunities for businesses. Recent figures show that by 2015/2016, the market for low-carbon goods and services be worth £12bn, or around 10% of the Scottish economy
“Glasgow is aiming to reduce its carbon emissions by 30% within a decade and has plans to become one of Europe’s most sustainable cities. The city’s vision is already creating new business opportunities and BaseGlasgow will offer attendees an unrivalled opportunity to hear from informed and authoritative speakers on how Glasgow’s sustainability agenda can be supported.
“To meet the city’s targets businesses will be called upon to help deliver initiatives such as retrofitting buildings to make them more environmentally-friendly; introducing more combined heat and power systems; turning waste into energy and broadening the city’s use of renewable energy and sustainable transport.
“The event will have a broad appeal to those working across the public and private sectors. We expect to attract attendees from a cross-section of industries including architects, urban and transport planners, construction and waste management professionals, academics, investors and bankers, and retail estate market and business consultants.
“We’re also in the process of finalising the speaker list and we expect to make more announcements of high-profile presenters in the near future.”
Gordon Matheson will kick off the event with a speech outlining the city’s sustainability priorities and plans to make it a key example of good practice in reducing carbon emissions.
Lord Smith of Kelvin, Chairman of the Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee, will talk about the long-term and short-term economic and environmental benefits and opportunities created by the sporting event and plans to make these Games the most environmentally-friendly in history.
Lena Wilson will participate in a summit bringing together experts from finance and sustainability, including RBS’ head of group sustainability Andrew Cave and Scottish European Green Energy Centre CEO Chris Bronsdon, to discuss finance innovations and gap funding options for green businesses.
There will be breakout sessions during the day, offering attendees the chance to interact directly with experts in a range of fields. The morning breakout sessions will offer attendees the choice between discussions on delivering district heating, housing retrofits, commercial building retrofits, waste-to-energy conversion, power demand management and Glasgow City Council’s new development plan. The afternoon sessions will focus on sustainable transport, long-term carbon reduction plans, issues around the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s ‘Green Deal, the Clyde Gateway project and Glasgow’s international partners for European sustainability funding.
BaseGlasgow is organised by QD Events in association with Siemens. Partners are IBM, SSE, Carillion Energy Services and Virgin Trains. The event is supported by Clyde Gateway, Glasgow City Council, Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, University of Strathclyde, SCDI, Scottish Enterprise, Sustainable Glasgow and the UK Green Building Council.
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