The UK’s commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 has kickstarted many political, social and economic conversations over the past few years. Sparking questions about the feasibility and practicalities of achieving net zero.
Whilst our road to net zero is seen as a combined effort for the whole of the UK, it’s at a local and regional level where the opportunities lie – both for sustainability and economic growth. And it’s outside of London where our net zero economy most thrives. Research currently shows that the net zero economy is stronger and significantly more productive in regions such as Scotland, the Midlands and Yorkshire & the Humber compared to London and the South East.
In our last piece ‘Unlocking the Potential of the UK’s Net Zero Economy: Insights from The Leeds City Region’ we spoke more about The Data City and our role mapping the UK’s net zero ecosystem. In this we introduced the net zero economy in Leeds, and the broad range of organisations and companies supporting sustainable practices.
This time we’re digging a little deeper and using our real-time database of over 5.2 million companies to put a spotlight on the companies that are directly supporting the net zero ecosystem in Leeds. These are great examples of tangible businesses that are providing high value jobs and wider value to the region.
Looking at our dataset, it’s clear that Leeds has a strong community of growing businesses working in waste recovery and recycling – a vital part of net zero ecosystem. Let’s take a look.
Waste recovery is the 4th largest net zero vertical in Leeds, with more than 80 companies operating in this space. The sector is growing fast and is almost twice as large as it was 10 years ago. This is on the back of an ambitious waste reduction initiative from Leeds City Council – since 2006 Leeds has doubled the recycling rate for households and now sends less than 3% of household waste to landfill.
MyGroup is a family run business that was founded in 1989. From their beginnings they’ve focused on waste recovery and sustainability. Today they offer a wide range of services to commit to this ambition. They have an anaerobic digestion facility, which provides power for 6,000 homes in Yorkshire. To offset part of their operation, they have planted 20,000 trees over the last 5 years. Whilst tackling the challenge of net zero, they’ve also been able to grow their business. Since 2019 their employee count has doubled; they’re also undertaking research into insect-based proteins and they’ve expanded their food waste recovery facility.
Next up, Leeds Wood Recycling. Leeds Wood Recycling are a social enterprise with an ambition to reduce the wood that goes to landfill. They have a reclaimed timber workshop, they run woodworking classes and offer volunteering opportunities for the community. We estimate they grew by almost 50% in the last year.
Waste recovery is an industry that Leeds City council has been drawing upon. In our last post we mentioned SWECO, an international energy consultancy. SWECO has played a role in establishing one of the UK’s largest district heat networks in Leeds.
What is a district heat network? The Leeds-based PIPES scheme takes excess energy generated from Leeds’ Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility and uses it to heat public buildings and social housing across Leeds. At a time of volatile energy prices this is providing low cost, green energy to those who need it most.
The PIPES scheme was announced in 2018 and this has helped bolster district heating companies in the Leeds region. Here are three examples of companies operating in the district heat industry that have exhibited strong growth in the Leeds City region since 2018.
Leeds currently supports over 20,000 net zero jobs across 470 companies, and we expect this to rise in the next few years. There’s undoubtedly a big opportunity in Leeds and the north to support new sustainable businesses and drive local growth and our national net zero targets.