With their suitcases in hand, the Inverness-based energy experts esave, took to the skies once again as they made their way to the ancient city of Lima.
They were there on behalf of the British Embassy not to promote marmalade but to kick-start energy efficiency within the local business community.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Peru is the third most vulnerable country to climate change in the world. To date, the country has faced numerous effects, including melting of around 40% of its glaciers and intensification of natural disasters. This has affected, and will continue to affect, the Peruvian economy and the UK Government, via its Embassy in Lima, aims to support Peruvian government to build sustainable, clean and inclusive growth driven by UK expertise, leadership and technology. esave proposed that their knowledge and experience built up over many decades in the UK is of real value in Peru, in particular in the business sector, and consequently, building on existing relationships in Peru developed by esave, the Embassy asked esave to visit and share this expertise.
Working with local partners and the British Peruvian Chamber of Commerce, the esave team hosted a series of three packed seminars on how to become more energy efficient – saving money and reducing emissions - which over 70 local organisations attended. The event has been hailed a great success as attendees left with an in-depth and valuable understanding of the carbon challenges facing their business and their country and how they could do something about it. By implementing the practical steps learnt during the event, esave are confident that Peruvian organisations could reduce energy costs and carbon emissions by 20% or more.
Importantly, these events will also provide a platform for enhancing existing UK export efforts by establishing esave and their local partner as a trusted resource for providing energy efficiency advice, and by helping to establish esave’ ‘ensensus’ resource management software as a tool for use by Peruvian organisations.
esave’s chief executive, Neil Watson said; “For years we have been helping companies across Scotland and the UK implement energy and carbon management strategies, so it was great for this work to be recognised by the British Embassy and for us to be asked to share our knowledge with Lima.”
“As with organisations in the UK, Peruvian businesses are facing increasing pressure to improve their environmental performance from customers, shareholders, regulators and civil society. We truly believe that this should be seen as an opportunity and not a chore, as taking action can significantly improve the bottom line in the process. A recent study by the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), found that costs amounting to $14bn were saved last year by companies that embraced an industry-leading approach to tackling emissions in their supply chain. This is just one of many actions that can be taken.”
“Our trip to Peru has given us a lot to think about and we are excited to work with organisations there in the future. The feedback we received both at the events and subsequently has been tremendous, and we would like to thank our partners over there as well as the British Embassy for this great opportunity.”
Agnes Annells, head of economic diplomacy at the UK Embassy in Lima said; “Reducing carbon emissions in line with Paris Agreement commitments is a key economic development challenge in Peru. The UK has shown global leadership on this and wants to do more in Peru, where we have a great reputation for offering high quality solutions. This is undoubtedly true of the low carbon sector, where there has been many years of building up knowledge in energy efficiency and carbon reduction, both in terms of new technology, and management practice. We really enjoyed working with esave and would like to thank them very much for coming out to share their expertise. The level of interest in the seminars was remarkable and we believe that the project offered valuable knowledge to Peruvian companies on carbon reduction techniques, giving them a real foundation of knowledge to take back to their organisations and take action.”