Green Entrepreneurs Fund - Derbyshire County Council and the University of Derby video transcript

[Drone footage shows rolling green fields. The Derbyshire County Council logo appears in the top right.]

[A river flows between tree-lined banks with a large hill in the background. The word “DERBYSHIRE” appears on screen.]

[“DERBYSHIRE” text remains as the video cuts to stone and rocks on the top of a hill.]

[“DERBYSHIRE” text remains as the video cuts to a sunrise over a river and trees. Text reading “Heart of the first Industrial Revolution” appears.]

[Screen fades to white. An image of Earth appears and zooms in on Derbyshire.]

[View from the Derwent Dam viewpoint. Text reads “Now the heart of the climate change revolution”.]

[Councillor Barry Lewis, Leader of Derbyshire County Council, speaking outdoors in an autumnal setting.]

Whether they're turning on lights, travelling or making things, people and businesses produce millions of tons of greenhouse gases. This has a big impact, and when I was elected leader of the council, I said we'd do something about it by powering up the green economy.

We've worked with the University of Derby to set up the Green Entrepreneurs Program.

[The Green Entrepreneurs logo appears, then the video cuts back to Councillor Barry Lewis.]

It shared 2 million in grants with 70 businesses and individuals so they can learn green skills, change how they work, and grow green business opportunities.

[Icons appear showing: 70+ companies supported; 97% effective in reducing carbon emissions; 1,610 tonnes of CO₂ reduced; 81% of companies increased energy efficiency.]

Now we can show you what that looks like.

[Ashley Holmes, Penny Engineering, Clowne, speaking in front of machinery.]

Pen Engineering was established in 1978. Uh, we recently received two sections of grants from the Green Entrepreneurs Fund, which we've used towards our two buildings on site.

The first building – we had new solar panels, we've had heating controls, we've had ventilation systems, and we've replaced all the LED lighting and the electrics. £40,000 to the company in the grant is almost like having to do £400,000 pounds worth of turnover to get that sort of profitability to spend.

[The camera zooms in on the Penny Engineering Group worksite.]

[James Morley, BM Tech Ltd, Foston, Derbyshire, speaking. Drone footage shows the worksite, a digger in a recycling area, and cooling towers.]

We recycle plastic, but we're very, very focused. We're focusing on PVC, which has come from cooling towers and water treatment plants.

[Footage shows a machine processing old plastic.]

The material that we take in, we process it, we separate out things that we don't want so we just get to the PVC. We reduce the size and we get it to a flake, and that can then be used by manufacturers producing things like drainage pipes, guttering, and so on and so forth.

[Aerial footage shows the recycling site in operation.]

The challenge we had was contamination on that incoming material, so the Green Entrepreneurs Program has been a huge help for us because we've been able to build a pre-cleaner that we've developed and designed in-house, and this is now operational and it is absolutely doing the job.

[Video cuts back to James Morley standing in front of mounds of plastic.]

Well, you can see by the size of the stockpiles behind me that we'd really got to a point where we were struggling to continue to go forward because we simply couldn't process this material economically.

[Sue Deane, Callow Top Holiday Park, Ashbourne, speaking in front of a bar at the holiday park.]

We get approximately 25,000 visitors a year. We applied for the Green Entrepreneurs funding in 2022 and we were lucky enough to get it. And with that, we put that towards a 228-panel solar array, which has generated over the last 18 months approximately 85,000 kilowatt hour units, which I believe would power 28 three-bedroomed homes for a year.

[Aerial footage shows the caravan site and camping area at Callow Top Holiday Park before cutting back to Sue Deane.]

Up to now, it's saved us approximately £30,000 in electric, which is really beneficial to the business financially, and people can see that we're a green business, we're making an effort to eventually become carbon neutral, which I'm really proud of.

[Mark Wheddon, Head of Delivery, Innovation and Research, University of Derby, speaking from a field.]

As part of the University of Derby's programme management for the Green Entrepreneurs Program, we provided an impact assessment report, and that asked the organisations that have been supported, "what have the benefits been to them?"

Over 95% of them told us that they had improved their carbon reductions, it's improved their operational processes, and importantly – I would say this, wouldn't I – but they're telling us that they're looking for the next stage in this... they're telling us that this is almost the first stage. They're on a net-zero pathway journey now, and they're looking for where the next set of funding is going to come from to get them further along on that pathway.

[Video cuts back to Councillor Barry Lewis, Leader of Derbyshire County Council, speaking outdoors in an autumnal setting.]

The results tell their own green story. Businesses have cut costs and emissions, they've reduced waste and improved efficiency, and they've developed brilliant new business opportunities.

So this is what real-world progress towards net zero looks like. While the Green Entrepreneurs Program has ended, the challenge hasn't.

Derbyshire has shown that the journey to net zero can really pay off. So let's think big and power up the green economy right across the region.

[A map of Derbyshire zooms out to show Earth. The Derbyshire County Council and University of Derby logos appear on screen.]

Green Entrepreneurs Fund - Derbyshire County Council and the University of Derby video

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