November 2020

News November 2020 www.pwemag.co.uk Plant & Works Engineering | 0 7 Challenge and STATWARS Film & TV encourage and develop meta skills related to teamwork, communication, leadership, curiosity, empathy, critical thinking and resilience, as teams collaborate on indeterminate problems and develop data-driven solutions. Both projects provide free-to-school teaching resources including lesson plans, activity sheets and video tutorials, as well as live interviews and skills sessions with experts. Pupils then submit answers in the form of a poster, infographic or presentation, with judges selecting winners. Dr Susan Scurlock MBE, CEO and Founder of Primary Engineer, added: “We are thrilled that Vodafone with their newly announced environmental pledges is joining us in our mission to empower pupils through data. Young people are asking not only for action on climate change but to be better informed so they can be part of the discussion. The STATWARS Climate Change Challenge is designed to enable pupils to use data to drive their decision-making process. This helps them identify the things they can do to tackle climate change, and highlights these issues within the curriculum.” Jungheinrich UK announces plans for Northern Central Hub Jungheinrich UK plans to consolidate its business operations in North West England into one central hub, thereby centralising its logistics processes in the North within a state-of-the-art facility to reflect its status as an industry leader in intralogistics. The new warehouse and office complex will be located at Mountpark Warrington Omega, north of Warrington, and is set to complete in July/August 2021. The facility will bring together Jungheinrich’s four existing sites in the North West, providing additional training facilities for servicing, maintenance and sales, as well as the opportunity to scale for further growth in future years. Luuk Snijders, managing director, Jungheinrich UK, commented: “This investment highlights our long-term commitment to the UK as a market, and the North as a key region, to support our operational processes around logistics warehousing, workshop facilities and support functions for Logistics Systems. The centralised approach further enables us to train and invest in our staff, helping them to become the logistics experts of the future and underpinning our position as a top employer in the region.” In light of the changing economic and political landscape, Jungheinrich continues to invest in its own logistics processes to ensure that its asset and stock management is robust and remains seamless, despite changeable trading conditions. One key consideration was where to import and store its goods ready for distribution, while also maintaining lead times and minimising any delays from the EU post-Brexit. By centralising the Northern sites, this reduces any complexity, bringing imports for that location all under one roof. Environmental considerations have also been a significant factor in the creation of the central hub. Not only is the facility engineered to support energy efficiency and carbon emission reduction, but by optimising logistics processes in the North, Jungheinrich will significantly reduce its truck movements between multiple sites, in turn, lowering its carbon footprint. This all helps contribute to Jungheinrich’s overall drive to reduce its energy consumption on an annual basis. Snijders added: “We’re enormously proud to be announcing our ambitious plans for 2021 that will help to support our customer base in the most efficient way, guaranteeing availability and the highest degree of product performance and most importantly – enhancing the customer experience. Our continued investment in the UK highlights our commitment to long-term sustainable growth within the market and our vision of becoming the number one intralogistics company.” Calls for pragmatic action on emission reduction Following growing public demand for more eco-friendly policy and the publication of a Committee on Climate Change (CCC) report into the UK’s Net Zero progress, industry should consider pragmatic and decisive action to lower its carbon footprint. Recent Climate Assembly UK polling highlighted that an overwhelming majority of Britons saw the spring lockdown as an opportunity to tackle climate change, with 93% stating that the Government and employers should encourage emission-cutting lifestyle changes post-pandemic. According to Aggreko, these attitudes show how sustainability will be a vital national priority in the future, and follows findings from the company’s own industry research. Specifically, Aggreko surveyed over 200 energy professionals across a wide variety of industries, finding that a resounding 96% of respondents said their company’s environmental impact was a ‘medium- to high-priority.’ However, though 82% of those surveyed confirmed they had used alternative fuels to improve sustainability, 85% still identified diesel as their fuel of choice for powering on-site equipment, showing a disconnect between thought and action. Citing these findings and the publication of a new report by the Committee on Climate Change calling for Net Zero to be at the forefront of any post-COVID economic recovery plan, Aggreko is suggesting how UK businesses and manufacturers could begin to take further steps toward lower emissions. “Both public and policymaker opinion is coalescing behind Net Zero, and it is clear the drive to reduce emissions will only grow in prominence as time goes on,” says Chris Rason, managing director at Aggreko. “Yet even though the Government has set 2050 as a deadline to reach this goal, it can still seem an intimidating prospect for businesses. This can be seen in our own research, which shows that while industry’s heart is very much in the right place on Net Zero, further efforts are required to improve overall sustainability. “However, by taking smaller initial steps and adopting more eco-friendly, sustainable technologies in the short term, organisations can set themselves on the best possible path to hit this ambitious target. Energy generation, more specifically reducing reliance on fossil fuels, represents one of the most promising