- make your business stronger, accelerating the removal of fossil fuel dependency in your business
- forge closer links with local suppliers and supply chains through joint team challenge participation
- win more bids and tenders using fuel change challenges to jointly tackle yours and your customer’s decarbonisations problems
- make your brand stand out through your thought leadership and credible and demonstrable sustainability action,
- discover the hidden talent in your workforce and in the community,
- attract the future workforce to join you,
- drive the innovation that will lead your transition to low carbon operations and
- do your bit in tackling climate change.
Business of the Future starts today
The business of today faces many challenges that include rising energy and fuel prices, Brexit, supply chain disruptions, the uncertainty from the Ukraine war and climate change.
The business of tomorrow will need to face these challenges becoming more sustainable, low carbon, circular and the key to that transition lies in their workforce, and in particular the hidden talent within the workforce
How can business start to transition today and see benefit from it?
At Fuel Change, we believe that by asking the workforce of the future to tackle real low-carbon challenges set by key industry partners, our Next Generation can become fully engaged in climate change by developing innovative but practical solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues. The challenge process rapidly develops skills and experiences in the young workforce that make them able to contribute more to the business they serve, driving innovation, sustainability and helping the business transition to a leaner, more efficient and sustainable organisation fit for the future and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
Why are we doing this?
We believe that the next generation deserve an opportunity to build and live in an economically prosperous and sustainable world and the challenge program gives them a platform to do that
What is the track record?
Fuel Change has run several National and spotlight challenges involving almost 1000 modern and graduates apprentices, has a program reaching into 21,000 students and over 50 employers have benefited from their future workforce taking part. There are dozens of interviews and case studies available on the Fuel Change youtube channel charting this progress. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC75KrmDZMsNnS-GgVO9i42w/videos
“It is important to highlight that building connections between the Next Generation in Booth Welsh with the senior staff can bring to light new ideas and outlooks on the company, and can make a big impression. The team on the Fuel Change Challenge Programme have been exploring energy use within the organisation and how we can optimise it to become even more efficient with our approach going forward.” Martin Welsh, MD of Booth Welsh
“Many of those in the business community are asking themselves if sustainability is a priority right now in the face of big challenges like rising energy costs, supply chain disruptions and recruiting staff. Here at Forth Ports, we have made sustainability a business imperative. We partnered with Fuel Change to fully engage the energy and imagination of our young workforce who are the grass roots of our organisation.
We asked our young workforce to help us drive the innovation we need to become more sustainable, circular, to remove carbon from our operations to hit our own and Scotland’s Net Zero targets. They exceeded our expectations. Putting our teams through the Fuel change challenge program has mobilised more of our workforce to get actively involved, collaborating and designing the solutions that are making us a more sustainable business, a provider of sustainable solutions to our local community and helping our customers meet their sustainable and net zero goals.” Stuart Wallace, Chief Operating Officer – Forth Ports
The South of Scotland Decarbonisation Challenge
For our next spotlight challenge, we are working with the academic community and partnered with South of Scotland Enterprise to engage the businesses and next generation in the region. If you are a business based in the South of Scotland and want to unleash your hidden talent and commit to driving your transition to net zero from the bottom-up, click the link below to register a team/individual by the 2nd of September. https://fuelchange.co.uk/challengeforworkplace/#open
What is the challenge program?
A 16 week programme for 16-25 year olds, participants will develop skills in: innovation, problem solving, teamwork, critical thinking and resilience, all whilst building their knowledge and practical understanding of sustainability.
What themes will be tackled?
Textiles – how we modernise and make the industry more competitive, sustainable and cope with a changing global market
Housing – how we cost effectively decarbonise and innovate in housing, tackling fuel poverty and rising energy prices
Agro-food – How we make the food and drink industry more sustainable from farm to fork
Forestry and Land use – How the forest sector can reduce dependency on fossil fuel intensive equipment and processes and help the country achieve its Net Zero goals
What we need ?
We need to recruit companies into this challenge who will enter teams of young people and also provide mentors and judges to support the young people taking part in the program
What are the details of the challenge?
The challenge itself begins on 12th September and runs in 3 sprints over 16 weeks. Finishing 10th of March.
With downtime between the sprints as you can see.
The average time commitment for the teams taking part is just 2 hours/week per team member.
There is no cost for entering a team into this challenge which is being funded by South of Scotland Enterprise
The teams should be in the 16-25 year old range. They are typically modern or graduate apprentices. But there are also teams formed from groups of students or other young people in the community.
There does need to be someone acting in a supervisory capacity to ensure the teams get the most from the experience
How do I get involved?
You can get involved a number of ways.
- You can meet a member of the Fuel Change team, email them at [email protected] to ask a question or setup a call
- You can attend one of the weekly webinars registered through the Fuel Change website here: https://fuelchange.co.uk/sose-challenge/
- You can attend one of the in-person events in Dumfries on the 9th August and 11th August. Registration links are below.
DUMFRIES
GALA
Who has signed up teams so far?
Some of the teams signed up include Eco Group, Lyle and Scott and Galloglas
“GalloGlas Group will be entering a team into fuel change and we want you to join us! We are looking at unleashing the underestimated skills and talent of the future workforce through Fuel Change’s unique challenge programme…… if you have staff 16-25 and can spare just 2 hours a week and you would like them to get involved then please send me a message. Likewise if you have kids or family that you think would be interested, again, let’s have a chat…. There are no costs and there are only benefits on both professional and personal levels!”
Richie Nicoll, GalloGlas Group CEO – Entrepreneur of the Year 2022, Scottish Veteran Awards
One partner. No competitors. Full visibility across the region.
