Sustainable ideas for the future of the Isle of Wight are firmly back on the agenda after Green On Wight, a conference held by the Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce. The event, held at Cowes Yacht Haven’s Events Centre on March 9th, brought together one hundred delegates from across the community, including representatives from the local authority, town and parish councils as well as key businesses.
Watch the video here:
Kevin Smith, Chief Executive of the Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce hailed the event as a huge success:
“Green On Wight has reignited the eco-green conversation around green-tech, innovation, reducing carbon footprint and getting everybody to share a vision for the future. There’s a real willingness from the community to work together. Our delegates today contributed by laying the foundations for future economic planning regarding carbon reduction.”
Green on Wight was hosted by TV journalist Nisha Pillai and opened by Steve Porter, the chairman of the Isle of Wight Chamber board. Isle of Wight Council leader Jonathan Bacon spoke at the conference to reaffirm the local authority’s commitment to sustainability and also welcome the spotlight returning to environmental issues.
Jonathan Bacon said:
“I think this conference is a great idea, to re-energize the agenda on the Isle of Wight. It’s really heartening to see the sort of discussion that’s been taking place today. I’m looking forward to seeing the package of ideas and what the council can do to hopefully support as many of those ideas as possible. We need a re-energizing of the policy and the strategy. There are lots of things out there that we could start doing, and start doing better and in more depth and detail, to really grow this agenda on the Island.”
Delegates heard from Dr Luke Myers, Associate Professor within Engineering and the Environment at the University of Southampton as well as Dr David Hutchinson, Environment Network Manager at the University of Portsmouth. David Hutchinson praised Green On Wight and highlighted the potential role of the business community on the Island.
David Hutchinson said:
“There’s a lot of people here today and it’s a great turnout. The Isle of Wight is a fantastic place and has great skills and significant companies that can contribute to this agenda. It’s the businesses that can really drive this forward. They can think in timescales that are long enough to mean that we can make investment and a positive impact into the low carbon economy. The things that we’re aiming to achieve are positive, with a positive outcome, for society for business and they can lead us to a better future.”
The event also featured exhibitors including Future Solent, the Footprint Trust, ARC Consulting, Liz Earle, Crossprint and WightFibre. Representatives from each company took part in the debates during the day. Delegates were also able to learn more about sustainable travel options from Red Squirrel Electric Bikes and Hire A Twizy.
Green On Wight also saw the launch of a Town Centre Toolkit designed to inspire local communities to progress car-free initiatives in their town centres. The toolkit draws on examples of European best practice and the conference welcomed Andre Botermans, from Houten in the Utrecht province of the Netherlands to launch the initiative.
The keynote address came from Chris Hines MBE, former Sustainability Director at the Eden Project and founder and Director of Surfers Against Sewage. He praised the progress that has been made so far and singled out the Isle of Wight as a potential international symbol of sustainability.
“The Isle of Wight is small enough to be manageable and cohesive – but large enough to count and to be replicable. If you started to look at big systems around waste, water, transportation and energy you could potentially become a completely sustainable model, almost off-grid. That would become a Living Lab. You’ve got the universities just across the water that could come and do the research and help measure that, and help develop that further. You’ve got a brilliant encapsulated island where you can develop those things and get a community buy-in where you’ve already got a strong brand and identity.
“There is a vibrant community here, almost ready to explode onto the Sustainability world. There’s a lot of good things happening on the Island and it feels like there’s a latent energy just bubbling under the surface. Be optimistic, make your life count and believe that we can make the changes that we need so that we can all live sustainably on this planet. Living on an island is a small version of that – that’s the Living Lab.”
