A number of business and environmental experts have been lined up to speak at ECO FAIR this summer encouraging companies to focus on areas such as waste and environmental management as well as improving energy use and reducing costs. ECO FAIR takes place on 18th June at Leeds United Football Club and is the North’s largest business-to-business environmental support event.
West & North Yorkshire Chamber is organising the event with a number of partners and this year’s event will be the 6th annual ECO FAIR with an exhibition and a seminar programme centred around three themes: energy and renewables, materials and water and property and people.
The Chamber has confirmed a number of high profile experts for ECO FAIR 2015. Lord Rupert Redesdale is chief executive officer and founder of the Energy Managers Association, which represents energy managers across all industries. The EMA’s priority is to improve the position of energy management experts and their profession and act as their united voice. Lord Redesdale will talk about some hot topics for energy managers including Electricity Market Reform, Power Purchase Agreements and Energy Performance Contracting.
Also speaking is Paul Arnold, sustainability engineer of Camira Fabrics who will talk about ‘Waste, innovation and upcycling: turning the waste problem into an opportunity’. Paul will describe how Camira Fabrics is trying to get more value from their waste materials and this session will help delegates to consider whether they could derive more value from their waste.
Celena Fernandez, environment manager for Compass Group UK & Ireland will talk about ‘Giving an existing Environmental Management System a complete revamp.’ Celena will share her experiences of engaging with colleagues from across the business and implementing a new ‘fit-for-all’ approach to environmental management. This will be a really interesting session for businesses that are looking to put their environmental management system to work for their business, their teams and their clients.
Andrew Hawley, chairman of Wallis Cutts Group will talk about ‘Energy Management Strategies and the Energy Saving Opportunities Scheme (ESOS)’. Larger companies, over 250 employees, or that have an annual turnover of over 50 million Euros, have until the 5 December to 2015 to comply with ESOS or face a fine of up to £50,000. ESOS represents a considerable opportunity to reduce business energy usage and therefore save considerable amounts of money.
Also confirmed is Helen Wheeler-Osman from Environmental Strategies who will talk about ‘Improving Energy Management with Thermography’. Using thermal images captured from working with many different businesses, Helen will discuss how thermography can help you understand the thermal performance of typical commercial and industrial buildings, as well as the energy efficiency of the processes that take place within them.
Sandy Needham, chief executive of West & North Yorkshire Chamber said: “Each year ECO FAIR gets bigger and better, providing a varied environmental exhibition and seminar programme. We’re looking forward to hearing from these expert speakers and hope visitors and exhibitors will go away buzzing with ideas, information and new contacts.”
ECO FAIR takes place from 8.30am to 4.00pm and is free to attend. Business people that are looking to make environmental improvements can attend for the full day or drop in for a short time to browse the exhibition and perhaps attend a few seminars. Businesses can also exhibit at the event to showcase their environmental products or services, with discounts offered for West & North Yorkshire Chamber members.
Anyone interested in further details can visit www.eco-fair.co.uk, call 01274 206660 or email events@wnychamber.co.uk
