The bare necessities of life
- Posted By Sharon Darcy
- Blog
What is an essential good or service? Recent months have seen some heated debates on this point. In Wales, one supermarket got into trouble by classifying period products as non-essential. In Ireland, a dog boutique selling canine accessories was able to stay open as it also sold pet food.
Sustainability First has a long history of working with the essential utility services that are necessary for existence such as energy and water. There is little argument that in meeting our basic needs, these are essentials.
Why a former punk rocker may be the first big test for public purpose in the water industry
- Posted By Martin Hurst
- Blog
Of all the utilities, water is probably the least prone to radical change. The first water infrastructure – wells and even some disposal of sewage - was developed over 6000 years ago. Water infrastructure in the Roman empire was more sophisticated than other utilities would achieve until well into the industrial revolution (and believe it or not some is still used today).
How can public utilities better address policy and regulatory risk to increase resilience?
- Posted By Sharon Darcy
- Blog
The last few weeks have seen important moves in the financial community to improve and increase reporting in terms of climate issues. Whilst the work of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures[i] is to be warmly welcomed in terms of helping to tackle climate risk, on its own, this will not lead to resilience in UK utilities.
Sustainability principles for a disrupted world
- Posted By Sharon Darcy
- Blog
The underlying principles that policy makers and regulators use to guide their every-day decisions need to be transformed if we are to survive and thrive through Covid-19 and the biodiversity and climate crises.
ED2, De-carbonisation and Net-Zero - where’s the strategy?
- Posted By Judith Ward
- Blog
Price-control design is both complex and 'mission-critical'. At stake is how the £billions of funding allowed by the regulator for DNO investment and operations will be shaped for the coming five years and beyond. Rightly, there is a strong focus on cost-efficiency. But concern about past returns shouldn't wholly dictate the future.
Whose losses are they?
- Posted By Maxine Frerk
- Blog
Last week I spoke on a panel at a webinar hosted by Enertechnos, a company which produces low loss cables for the electricity distribution sector and who have just produced a report on how losses impact our ability to meet net zero.
What is Fair? – Ask the people
- Posted By Maxine Frerk
- Blog
It was great to see the conclusions of the Citizens Climate Assembly published last week, having looked in depth[1] at the French equivalent. As an advocate of citizens assemblies and deliberative engagement more broadly, and given the crucial importance of tackling climate change, I am clear that the report deserves to be taken seriously and read carefully by policy makers and others.
How to be a purposive utility company
- Posted By Martin Hurst
- Blog
Even before the Covid crisis and the climate emergency movement, the notion that capitalism had to
be about more than simply short-term shareholder returns had been growing worldwide.
What metrics should we use to track progress in delivering sustainability in public utilities?
- Posted By Martin Hurst
- Blog
Sustainability First's Fair for the Future Project is helping energy, telecoms and water companies, policy makers and regulators better address the politics, ethics and practical application of fairness and the environment in the utility sectors.
Building from the corona crisis towards a sustainable future
- Posted By Super User
- Blog
As health practitioners, scientists, economists and those in government continue to navigate the country through the Coronavirus crisis some eight months on; fire-fighting simmering virus hotspots whilst simultaneously attempting to reinvigorate the economy; those tasked with looking further into a post-Corona future have so far been clear on two things.