West Midlands firms can find out about the enormous potential of joining a low-carbon supply chain at a major event this week.
‘Growing Green’ in West Bromwich on Thursday 18 March aims to open up huge ‘green’ opportunities to local firms and is bringing blue-chip exhibitors and expert speakers to the region, including representatives from Rolls Royce Plc, Westinghouse and Mitsubishi.
Sponsor Advantage West Midlands estimates that contracts for the UK’s nuclear, renewable energy, green automotive and low-carbon construction markets are potentially worth over £8 trillion over the next 15 years and the region, with its strong tradition of innovative manufacturing and engineering, is ideally placed to capitalise on these opportunities.
finditinsandwell (Sandwell Council's award-winning procurement portal), brings together sponsors Advantage West Midlands, Black Country Chamber of Commerce, RESCO, Business Link and Sandwell College for this meet-the-buyer networking and insight day at the Bethel Convention Centre in West Bromwich.
The event will showcase 65 exhibitors - all leading experts operating within the 'green' market. There are over 500 delegates already booked, but some places are still available.
‘Growing Green: a greener, brighter, low-carbon future for YOUR business’ takes place on Thursday 18 March at the Bethel Convention Centre, Kelvin Way, West Bromwich B70 7JW. To sign up to attend, phone Steve Massey on 0121 569 2105 or email stephen_massey@sandwell.gov.uk. For information about the aims of the event, contact Joe Ling at Advantage West Midlands: joeling@advantagewm.co.uk or 0121 503 3419.
CASE STUDY:
Delegates at the Growing Green event will learn first-hand how they can benefit from being part of a greener supply chain from companies such as Weatherite.
From modest beginnings in 1972, Weatherite Group has established itself as one of the leading HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) and Building Services organisations in the UK.
The Black Country-based group successfully operates within highly demanding and competitive market sectors such as retail, telecommunications and leisure and with a blue chip customer base that includes the likes of Tesco, BT, and GlaxoSmithKline. Weatherite Manufacturing Limited combines innovative, energy saving product design and state of the art manufacturing capabilities at their West Bromwich based plant.
One of the company’s great strengths is its ability to develop new ideas and products and then bring them to market at a rapid pace. One such initiative is the development of a revolutionary, energy-saving Tri-generation Energy Centre which uses a highly green ADsorption Chiller.
The chiller is a ‘greener’ alternative to absorption conventional chiller, which substantially reduces energy use and carbon emissions.
Similar to conventional absorption chillers, the ADsorption chiller uses recovered heat from the power generating process instead of electricity from the National Grid to produce chilled water. One of the many benefits is that it does not require the use of Lithium Bromide, together with its associated environmental concerns.
Instead, cooling is achieved by using water as a refrigerant. Water is absorbed onto a bed of silica gel then, under low pressure, heat is removed from the system by boiling it off. This produces chilled water as low as 4˚C which especially benefits supermarkets where an extensive amount of cooling is required.
Weatherite Group Chairman John Whitehouse, who founded the company in the heart of the Black Country almost 40 years ago, said: “The Government has quite clearly placed the onus on UK business to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions and we strongly believe that tri-generation technology will definitely provide a clear way forward.
“The ADsorption chiller is a very exciting part of our Tri-generation Energy Centres and can be used in various other applications and across a wide spectrum of industries, worldwide.”