In the first of the University of Kent’s Net Zero Pathway to Change workshops, businesses from across the region joined Professor Thanos Papadopoulos and Dr Lina Simeonova from Kent Business School to learn how organisational resilience and change can help them reach their net zero goals.
All of the businesses in attendance gave the session 10/10 when asked to rate how informative it was and many are already looking forward to attending the rest of the series over the coming weeks.
The workshop, which took place at Canterbury Innovation Centre, began with a deep-dive into the three key building blocks for efficient operations. These included the right organisational foundations, organisational culture and a high level of technology adoption across an organisation. Participants were then given ample opportunity to consider how they might apply these principles to their own business with support and guidance from the academic experts.
The workshops are part of a wider programme, funded by the UK Community Renewal Fund and led by Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, Kent County Council and the University of Kent, to support SMEs within the Local Authority areas of Swale, Gravesham and Canterbury to identify, adapt and implement measures that reduce their carbon emissions. As such, businesses from these areas who attend the workshops are able -and encouraged- to apply for £5k funding to continue to access support from University of Kent academics to take further steps towards meeting their net zero goals.
Professor Thanos Papadopoulos is an expert in supply chain management, resilience, and sustainability and listed by Stanford University as one of the top 2% influential researchers in the world. He said of the opportunity, “Sustainability and the path to net zero is bigger than any individual business; it entails a holistic view of the supply chain and is impacted by our key stakeholders.”
Dr Lina Simeonova, whose expertise is in routing, scheduling and the benefits of integrated operations in logistics and supply chain, added, “This workshop helped businesses to identify their main organisational and operational barriers towards their net zero goal. Our next workshop on 11 July will focus on providing specific tools to achieve it.”
To find out more about and register for future sessions in the series, visit our Eventbrite Page.