Molson Hosts Decarbonising Heavy Mobile Equipment Event

As members of the SevernNet community, Molson Group was pleased to host one of the social enterprise scheme’s monthly breakfast meetings, on the theme “Decarbonising Mobile Heavy Equipment” at their flagship Avonmouth service centre.

SevernNet is a not-for-profit social enterprise run by and for the businesses, community and other stakeholders across the areas of Royal Portbury Dock, Avonmouth, Severnside, and Western Approach, which is one of the largest industrial areas in Northern Europe to encourage cooperation and collaboration on subjects such as climate, travel, biodiversity and the circular economy across the region.

Following an introduction to SevernNet from Director Kate Royston, the Molson Group CEO Robin Powell welcomed over 100 attendees from local businesses and the community to the event focussed on the technology and the drive towards alternative fuel use in construction equipment. Powell gave an introduction to the Group’s activities in the UK and the US, highlighting the work they have undertaken with their suppliers in designing and delivering electric-powered recycling equipment for over a decade. With non-road mobile machinery emitting 2.7% of the UK’s total greenhouse emissions, there is an urgent requirement for the manufacturers, dealers and end users to look at their operations and endeavour to change wherever possible.

The event commenced with the Plantforce CEO, Sam Mercer speaking about the company’s journey to deliver sustainable solutions and the innovations they are working on to achieve this. Starting with their focus on meeting their client’s requirements for machines of no more than three years old on site, to their drive to lower carbon emissions with driver training and alternative fuel testing and their journey as part of the Element 1 project, which is designing and delivering the first of two new dual-fuel hydrogen powered Kobelco excavators, one of which was unveiled at the event.

Molson Group Commercial Director Henry Moore was next up speaking about the company’s work with customers and suppliers to reduce emissions in construction equipment. Talking openly about the critical need for equipment and the role they play in our society from building homes, power stations and processing waste, Moore spoke about the efforts Molson Group are going to in the collection and analysis of data collected from equipment and its use in delivering efficiencies across the board.

The event was concluded with Chris Adams, Director of Engineering at Bristol Port Company, Derek Healey, Technical Manager at Suez, Paul Lowndes, Programme Director at Gravity, Rhianydd Griffith, Stakeholder Lead at SevernNet and Chris Matthew, Commercial Director at Plantforce taking part in a panel event focussed on their company’s steps towards addressing carbon emissions.

Whilst each company faced different hurdles in their efforts to reduce their own carbon impact, their joint message was that it is a hurdle that can be crossed with cooperation between suppliers. Whilst the use of alternative fuels plays a major part in the decarbonisation of projects and equipment, each panel member was keen to point out that a lack of distinct government legislation and a lack of financial incentive to help justify investment in upgrading technology such as heavy equipment. While the challenges of securing access to the power networks, especially at a viable cost, were identified as a critical hurdle holding back companies looking to go green. The event was closed by Kate Royston, who thanked everyone involved in organising the  event, which highlighted the collective push towards a sustainable and greener future for construction equipment.