SDCL Chief Executive, Jonathan Maxwell, talks to the Times about how Britain could save over £100 billion if it stopped wasting so much energy
Sustainable Development Capital LLP is delighted to announce the appointment of Ben Story as Group Chief Operating Officer.
Ben joins SDCL from Rolls-Royce plc, where he was a member of the Executive Team responsible for strategy, M&A, corporate affairs, customer services and digitalisation. Ben championed the repositioning of Rolls-Royce as a global power group leading the transition to Net Zero. During his time at Rolls-Royce, the group established new businesses in distributed energy, electric urban air mobility, small modular reactors and artificial intelligence.
Before that, Ben spent over 25 years in banking, most recently as Head of UK Investment Banking at Citigroup Inc. He has extensive experience with global infrastructure investment and funding. Ben is a Board Member of Transport for London and Chair of its Programmes & Investment Committee.
Ben joins at an exciting time for SDCL. To enable the transition to Net Zero, we see growing applications for distributed energy and for greater energy efficiency across a broad range of commercial and industrial uses. Crucially, SDCL’s mission is not simply about adding energy capacity; it is fundamentally also about reducing energy demand. Ben’s unique combination of skills and experience will help ensure that we can offer compelling green energy solutions to our customers around the world, supported by best-in-class capabilities and operations.
The Group COO role was established by Joseph Muthu in response to SDCL’s rapid growth. Joseph’s investment role at SDCL remains unchanged. In addition, Joseph will represent management on the SDCL Board and coordinate interaction with the SDCL Management Committee.
Regarding Ben’s appointment, Jonathan Maxwell, CEO of SDCL, said: “Ben is a significant figure in sectors where we operate, having held key roles at Rolls-Royce and major financial institutions. His expertise, leadership and operational experience will be invaluable to SDCL as we continue to grow and achieve our ambition to be the leader in distributed energy and energy efficiency solutions globally.”
Ben Story, Group COO of SDCL, said: “I am thrilled to be joining SDCL as the group continues to grow rapidly and increases its global footprint as a provider of distributed energy and energy efficiency solutions. This is an exciting time for SDCL and I hope to apply the skills and experience I have gained from leadership roles in finance and industry to keep SDCL at the forefront of the transition to Net Zero.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2022-03-14/the-war-in-ukraine-the-economy-and-energy-podcast
Resource Efficiency is Crucial for Sustainable Development
by JONATHAN MAXWELL
Energy efficiency is one of the most important priorities for the global energy economy and policymakers in the coming decade. It should be at the very top of the agenda for all businesses and governments. The
United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow called for energy efficiency improvements, alongside increases in clean power generation, as one of the last features included in the Glasgow Climate
Pact and topics of the conference. This is most welcome, but in the future, it should be the first item on the agenda.
Mitie, the UK’s leading facilities management business, and Sustainable Development Capital LLP (SDCL), an investment firm specialising in energy efficiency and decentralised energy generation, have launched a new partnership to help both public and private sector organisations plan their decarbonisation roadmap and fund the low carbon equipment and technology they need to make their sites net zero.
Through this partnership, Mitie and SDCL will help organisations looking to roll out equipment, such as solar panels to generate renewable energy on site, as well as air and ground source heat pumps to switch buildings from gas to electricity-based heating systems, to decarbonise their buildings and improve their energy efficiency. With research showing that Finance Executives believe that limited expertise (50%) and access to capital (34%) are among the top factors limiting their business’ investment in decarbonisation1, this partnership will help remove some of the major roadblocks in many organisations’ net zero journeys.
Mitie will use its engineering and energy management expertise to help customers manage their sustainability projects from end to end, starting with the auditing of sites to collect baseline energy consumption and carbon emissions data to identify the right solutions for each building. Mitie will then use this roadmap to help its customers procure, install, and maintain the equipment to decarbonise and make sites more energy efficient. SDCL will selectively provide capital to fund the delivery and installation of the solutions identified by Mitie, so that organisations aren’t encumbered by large upfront capital investments. SDCL will maintain long-term ownership of the projects, making them available for use under an energy services agreement.
Pradyumna Pandit, Managing Director, Energy and Sustainability, Mitie, said:
“Tackling the built environment is essential for decarbonising Britain. There are many technologies available today that are proven to help businesses reduce costs and carbon emissions from their sites, however large upfront capital costs mean that many are delaying their actions towards reaching net zero.
“This partnership with SDCL will help more businesses overcome these challenges and go further, faster towards their net zero transition while ensuring their operational costs stay on track. We look forward to using our energy management and engineering expertise to help customers with every aspect of their decarbonisation journey.”
Jonathan Maxwell, CEO and Founder, Sustainable Development Capital LLP, said:
“Investing in decentralised and efficient energy solutions can contribute to over half of global carbon emission reduction targets by 2030. Onsite energy and energy efficient measures are commercially and technologically proven and capable of implementation at scale today.
“SDCL has worked with Mitie for many years and is pleased to be entering into a partnership to provide cheaper, cleaner and more reliable energy solutions to businesses.”
Mitie offers a wide range of sustainability services, enabling businesses to take a holistic approach to sustainability. Decarbonisation projects can be designed to help organisations make the most out of the funding while ensuring that they can be incorporated into their wider net zero strategy, covering fleet, waste management and landscaping.
This initiative is part of Mitie’s Plan Zero commitment to reach net zero for its operations by 2025 and to help its customers implement solutions to reduce their carbon emissions. Mitie has helped customers cut over 353,000 tonnes of carbon, the equivalent to around 11 times Mitie’s own annual emissions, in the last decade. Mitie has also announced that it will be rolling out solutions to decarbonise four of its properties by the end of the Financial Year 2022 and to make an additional 14 sites net zero every year until all its portfolio of more than 50 buildings have been decarbonised.
Organisations interested in more information should visit www.planzerocarbon.com.
Eligibility for the SDCL programme will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
About Mitie
Founded in 1987, Mitie’s job is to look after places where Britain works and is the leading facilities management company in the UK. We offer a range of services to Central Government and Defence customers; Communities (Healthcare, Education and Local Authorities); and Technical Services (Engineering Services, Energy, Water and Real Estate Services) and Business Services (Security, Cleaning and Office Services) to Private Sector clients in Financial Services, Manufacturing, Transport, Retail and Telecoms and increasingly to the public sector. Finally, our Specialist Services (Care & Custody, Landscapes and Waste Management) division serves both the public and private sector in these niche businesses.
Mitie acquired Interserve’s FM business in December 2020 and now employs 75,000 people we are the champion of the ‘Front-Line Heroes’ who have kept Britain working during the COVID-19 pandemic. We take care of our customers’ people and buildings, through the ‘Science of Service’, delivering essential services and deploying industry leading technology to create safe and effective workspaces.
The business continues to execute its technology-led strategy and in the past six months has received multiple awards.
Find out more at www.mitie.com.
About SDCL
Sustainable Development Capital LLP (“SDCL”), an investment firm established in 2007, with a proven track record of investment in energy efficiency and decentralised generation projects in the UK, Continental Europe, North America and Asia.
SDCL is headquartered in London and also operates worldwide from offices in New York, Dublin, Madrid, Hong Kong and Singapore. SDCL is authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Further information can be found at www.sdclgroup.com.
Alison Ring, Director Public Sector and Tax, ICAEW in conversation with Jonathan Maxwell, CEO of Sustainable Development Capital LLP, to gain a better understanding of how energy efficiency initiatives can be financed in all sectors and what the solutions are to the problems of inefficient energy systems.
Hear from Jonathan whether policy making and regulation is moving in the right direction to create greater sustainable solutions and why the energy model needs to be rebuilt.
This on-demand session is part of the ICAEW Climate Summit, to view the full programme of events please visit the event page.
