February 2020 Newsletter
February was the Tay Cities Business Month and full of events. We kicked off with the Michelin Development Fund that will help local businesses with very beneficial loans and business advice. The month continued with a fantastic Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce and Dundee Council event on Construction, attended by major developers, educational institutions and the local Councils.
We continued with a Dundee and Angus Chamber Business Breakfast that focused specifically on Circular Economy. The event was delivered at the new distillery of Ogilvy Spirits in Glamis and included talks from Graeme Jarron, the man behind Ogilvy farm and Ogivly spirits, Circular Tayside on circular economy and the support available, and Angus 3D on additive manufacturing. We finished the event with a tour of the farm where we were shown how their unusable potatoes are turned into their smooth vodka, and then fed to the cattle, how they complement their energy needs with renewables and how they used the land to their financial advantage with minimal intervention. Check out our article for more details.
We continued the month with three more circular economy-themed events. We were very happy to attend and present at the second Food Waste workshop from Zero Waste Scotland, this time delivered in Abertay University with a tour of their food innovation lab.
We continued with another event with ProCirc at the local authorities' "Meet the Buyer" event at Invercarse Hotel. It was very exciting to see the amazing work ProCirc has been doing on circular procurement and their new project, the Circular Office.
The last event of the month was a presentation of circular economy and construction to Dundee University planning students. The circular construction expert from Zero Waste Scotland delivered a fantastic overview on how buildings can be designed and constructed in a circular manner and gave us a glimpse of what is happening in Scotland and in the world at the moment. We will be happy to work with the university and their students in the future- education is the best prevention.
Events aside, this month saw the launch of the world's most environmentally friendly gin, from our local Arbikie distillery. The company worked in partnership with the James Hutton Institute and Abertay University for 5 years and developed a gin made out of peas. The research compared gin made from locally grown peas vs gin made traditionally from wheat. According to the research, although peas use more land than wheat, they make up for that by fixing nitrogen in the soil (if some crop or roots are left in the soil after the harvesting), and can substitute up to 66% of soy-derived animal feed for cattle if used as animal feed after their fermentation and distillation. In this model, the peas were utilised throughout their lifecycle, were grown locally and reduced the need for imported animal feed and fertiliser. Read our article here.
We were also delighted to meet with the sustainability officers from Business Gateway and Scottish Enterprise to discuss where Circular Tayside fits in with their existing business goals. It looks like more and more businesses are trying to be sustainable in every step of their growth, and are approaching that goal through many different angles, be it circularity, CO2, biodiversity, energy efficiency and others.
The last major event of the month was Angus Council's "Meet your Neighbour" event for Montrose port adjacent businesses. The event was related to the massive offshore wind project that is going to be finished by 2022. Key players in the project are Montrose Port that will provide the space for the wind turbines, SSE that will provide the technology and ISLA Developments that will construct the innovative infrastructure to house operations and staff. There are strong commitments from all key players to keep operations as green as possible and reduce CO2, while creating more than 400 jobs. The event was attended by local SMEs that serve the offshore wind industry and will provide the expertise and resources to complete the project. Angus Council has created a great resource for local businesses to express their interest, the Forth and Tay Offshore Wind Supply Chain Capability Matrix. Check out the project here and don't forget to add your business to the matrix.
So What is in the cards for March 2020?
We start March with an exciting construction-related supply chain event in Dundee. We will continue discussions with ProCirc on the circular office and how it would look like for our local businesses, especially the ones that are delivering services. Later in the month, we are eager to attend an "Impact for business workshop" delivered by Scottish Enterprise, to see how well informed businesses are on the sustainability measures they will have to have in place. This will be followed by our first "Circular Tayside Ambasador" meeting where our ambassadors will be sharing their sectoral knowledge and challenges they face, exchanging best practice and looking for potential synergies.
The month continues with several rural climate cafes and grassroots zero waste groups that are an invaluable resource for local communities. These meetings will help us map the local zero-waste initiatives and see where there are challenges and opportunities.
We finish our month with a Dundee City Council Earth Hour event, co-delivered with Resource Efficient Scotland, where we will present a holistic package of sustainability, from reduction of coal-based energy use and increase in renewables, to waste and resources management and Zero Waste Scotland support.
Check out our website here for the latest updates and Circular Tayside events, become one of our Be Inspired stories and be showcased on our Map, and join our Circular Tayside Ambassador team. If you are organising any events on circular economy or sustainability- related networking, contact us and we will include them on our Circular Tayside Calendar