How major companies are helping the UK meet their Net Zero goals

We all know that it’s important for everyone including businesses to do the best they possibly can to become more environmentally friendly and implement sustainable practices and processes within their home lives and businesses. 

So far this year we’ve seen a lot of businesses showcase their sustainable aims that affect both their business and customers positively. 

In this blog, we’ll explore how a range of businesses are helping the UK meet their Net Zero aims.  

The UK’s Net Zero goals are set to be met by 2050 and will be achieved by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 100% from the 1990 levels by 2050. This means that the greenhouse gases produced by the UK would be equal to or less than the emissions removed by the UK government from the environment. This means that we have more of a positive impact on the environment than a negative one.

What are companies doing to help the government reach their goals? 

There are a variety of companies that have announced their sustainable aims set to be met within the next 10 - 20 years. So who are these companies and how will they impact you and the planet positively?

Nationwide

Nationwide recently introduced their 0% Borrowing Product to help those who have mortgages with them afford the green improvements they want to make to their homes. 

The Borrowing Product will allow 5,000 homes in the UK that have a mortgage with Nationwide to take out an additional 0% loan between £5,000 and £15,000, giving them the opportunity to make sustainable changes to their home. This can include doing things like:

• Installing a heat pump

• Implementing solar panels 

• Undertaking window upgrades

• Completing boiler upgrades

• Implementing cavity wall insulation

Nationwide hopes that by introducing 0% borrowing for green improvements, it will combat the barriers currently standing in the way of people making these changes. More often than not, these barriers are the cost and payback periods that come with undertaking retrofits.

To learn more about how Nationwide is helping people afford to make changes to their homes, read our blog.

Airbnb

Airbnb has already successfully implemented processes that help their hosts pay for heat pumps to be installed in their property within the UK and France and are now introducing this in Massachusetts. This is also the first program of its kind to occur within the US and it will give Airbnb vacation rental owners $2,500 toward installing a heat pump.

The programme aims to help hosts reduce their carbon emissions by offering them cash rebates to help further incentivise installing a heat pump. 

When this was rolled out in the UK in 2022 it was met with great enthusiasm from thousands of hosts according to Airbnb. This highlights the importance of companies introducing new ways to help their customers afford sustainable upgrades so that everyone and everything on our planet has a future. 

The encouragement of installing heat pumps can also be emphasised by highlighting that heat pumps can also help hosts save money on their energy bills, as they’re more efficient than traditional gas boilers. This is due to heat pumps being 400%  efficient compared to gas boilers being 90% efficient. 
This means that for every 1 kWh taken in, 4 kWh are produced meaning no energy is wasted, whereas gas boilers lose 10% of their energy causing you to spend more on your bills due to you using more energy to make up for those that were wasted. 

Octopus Energy and Legal & General

Octopus energy and Legal & General are investing £70 million renewable energy solutions including ground source heat pumps. This will help boost the roll out of heat pumps in Britain and should help us meet the government's aim of reaching Net Zero by 2050.

This is the biggest ever investment to be seen in ground source technology and will help install 50,000 ground source heat pumps a year by 2030. It will also help drive down the cost of heat pumps and reduce the reliance we currently have on gas boilers. 

The investment will also make heat pumps more accessible for more housing types , including retrofits for:

• Social housing

• Terraced housing

• Non-domestic buildings

Whitbread and Premier Inn

Whitbread is working with Premier Inn to replace mains gas supply with heat pumps and solar panels in Premier Inn hotels. 

Whitbread has also published a ‘comprehensive guide to its long-term decarbonisation plans’, which includes bringing the group's directly controlled emissions to zero by 2040. 

The group’s Net Zero Transition Plan highlights a commitment to remove mains gas from over 800 Premier Inns by 2040, which will be achieved through installing heat pumps and solar panels in each hotel. 

The hotel chain is also set to open its first all-electric hotel in Swindon later this year, emphasising the lengths they're going to improve their business processes and operations while helping improve the quality of life for us and the planet.  

Finally, they say ‘We don’t claim to have all the answers now, but our plan will evolve over time and evolve as the technologies and policies that we rely on for success develop further’. This is a great step in the right direction from Whitbread and Premier Inn and it shows that we shouldn’t be waiting around to make these sustainable changes when the timing is perfect. Starting now and implementing the best possible current processes and then adapting as technologies advance is a great way to start making a real difference to the planet and people in both the short and long term. 

In conclusion, it’s amazing to see multiple companies making steps toward improving their buildings, company processes and improving customer satisfaction and experiences. Ultimately heat pumps are a great way to help make a real difference on the planet.
For further information and guidance on how a heat pump could work for you, get in touch with Enula today.