On Tuesday 5 October, independent UK law firm Burges Salmon hosted the latest virtual roundtable in its ‘Road to Net Zero’ series, which brought together a range of leaders and key stakeholders to discuss Net Zero commitments, power generation, supply and resilience in relation to the Industrial & Logistics and Distribution Centre sectors.
The firm launched its series of Net Zero-focused roundtable events in 2019 to address the challenges and opportunities in relation to achieving the government’s Net Zero 2050 target. This roundtable marked the ninth in the series.
Kevin Mofid, Head of Logistics & Industrial Research, Commercial Research, at Savills provided an overarching view of the impact of Net Zero commitments on the sector. The group then discussed topics relating to energy infrastructure requirements such as: how lack of grid capacity and how delays in obtaining it are impacting development; who is responsible for developing sustainable energy solutions in the medium term; what the biggest opportunities for the sector are; what changes in policy and regulation would help the sector in relation to Net Zero.
Burges Salmon partner Ross Fairley, chair of Net Zero Services, facilitated the roundtable, which attracted representation from a range of organisations with an interest in delivering Net Zero including St Modwen, Tritax Symmetry, Prologis, Macquarie Group, Ampersand Partners, Citivale, Hartree Partners, Hodgetts Industrial, Longevity Partners, Orchard Street Investment Management LLP, Protium and Savills.
Ross Fairley says: “I would like to thank all the organisations that took part in this latest roundtable. Our aim is to bring organisations together enabling them to debate the key issues and establish contacts and business opportunities to facilitate the move to Net Zero.
“Burges Salmon has a wealth of experience in advising the key sectors (the built environment, transport, energy, land use and food production) that will need to collaborate to achieve Net Zero. This puts us in a strong position to understand the implications of changing policy and regulation. We have embarked on this series of roundtables to bring sector leaders together and facilitate the necessary joined-up thinking.”