Let’s Talk: The Future of Sustainable Regulation

A corporate sustainability agenda used to be nice to have, right? You were different, you were the ones actively deciding what the next steps were and how you wanted to achieve the goals set out in your company. You were leaders. Now, who doesn’t have one? And if you don’t, why? Sustainability measures are being seen within regulation in many industries, especially recently. On the 29th of September we invited an expert panel to discuss the eco regulations that are in place in a variety of industries, along with how technology is being implemented to reach these goals. 

We were introduced to the event by our host and Co-Founder Georgia Halston, who gave an introductory presentation on RegTech Talks background before moving on to talk about why the subject of the event was so important. With and ever changing ‘eco-friendly’ environment we are often trying to find out how to avoid greenwashing and dishonest marketing campaigns. Georgia spoke about how within CSR reporting, we only see companies’ base sustainability activities. Not the innovative movement we need to see them making. She also spoke about how implementing sustainability regulations in the future will aid companies make bigger, more positive moves rather than the current trend of focussing on carbon ‘offsetting’ through actions like planting trees. Something which is a long-winded solution as it takes years to take effect and also does not fix the root of the problem.   

"Compliance is essential to safeguarding the quality standards of those industries most integral to our society." 

Terry Clark, Co-Founder of BuildStream 

Our next speaker of the event was Terry Clark, Co-Founder of BuildStream whom joined onto the event to give his talk on ‘A digital approach to supply chain audit, inspection and assessment.’ Terry began his presentation by explaining how BuildStream can help companies digitise their supply chain and quality processes. Terry spoke about how ever-changing regulations and legislation surrounding supply chains can often cause quality to slip, and spoke us through how some of the big recent changes like Brexit have affected companies.

"Big changes have happened over the last few years like Brexit, that have changed the way that we trade in the UK with other countries. This can lead to slippage of standards. There's ever changing regulations and food safety for carbon emissions and trade wars and tariffs." 

Terry ran through the many risk areas that could stem from not properly managing supply chain quality such as; quality of services and products, safety, business continuity, reputational risk and non-compliance fines. 

“Managing supplier quality can actually improve business relationships. It can help reduce costs and risks in the supply chain and the way that companies can do this is to do supplier pre-qualification audits. So, working with your suppliers to tell them the standards that you require, and then having procedures in place to test that, and help the supply chain to improve their standards so that they can serve you effectively.” 

Finally, Terry ran through some case studies to properly showcase how supply chain failures have caused major issues to our environment previously, including the BP oil spill in the gulf of Mexico. Something which cost BP $6million to fix whilst causing decades worth of environmental damage, all due to a failure in their supply chain.  

Carl Stanton, Head of Sales at Mina   

Our final speaker of the day was Carl Stanton, Head of Sales at Mina. Carl joined the webinar to take us through his presentation on ‘Unlocking the challenges around EV charging.” Carl explained how Mina was first started up in Sheffield with a love of sustainability and a want to make EVs accessible. 

"Our main vision so to say is to make paying for EV charging radically simple!" 

Carl talked through the fact that one of the main issues with EVs is the use of them for company cars. The current government guidance for how much you should pay for charging a company vehicle is 4p per mile, regardless of the type of vehicle. Carl explained why this causes such issues for companies with this current regulation.  

He then went on to speak about how the announcement in November 2020 on the fact that there would be no new internal combustion engines built beyond 2030. He explained how this created a surge in specifically fleet vehicles needing to prepare for a big change. He told us how this created huge growth for Mina as they also offer EV fleet management help. 

“60 to 65% of vehicles on the road today are fleet vehicles, the privately owned sector is big, but the fleet sector is far bigger. So, the knock-on effect of demand for electric vehicles is pushing back onto suppliers and also creating demand for us.” 

Carl expanded on how all the regulations that have been put in place so far have been incredibly beneficial for the Mina platform as it has allowed them to shape their platform appropriately in way which it will benefit all its consumers now and also in the future when the new legislation and regulation comes into play.  

This event has offered some incredible insight into the future of sustainable regulation and how consumers as well as companies and most of all our environment, will be benefitting from it. If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact us. 

If you enjoyed this event, make sure to keep your eyes peeled on our socials and events page for news on any upcoming events!