In September, our Cold Chain Live! conference in Birmingham brought together more than 300 cold chain colleagues to reflect on how the changes of the past few years have impacted temperature-controlled storage and distribution and to examine the developing opportunities of today and tomorrow. It was inordinately valuable to be able to get together in person to talk through the challenges of the current very difficult operating environment.
The topics covered at Cold Chain Live! were wide-ranging, reflecting the breadth and variety within our industry. Key discussions included explorations of the technologies that will shape the cold chain’s future; the potential for global opportunities post-Brexit; skills needs of the future; and of course the huge challenge posed by the energy cost crisis.
Conversations at Cold Chain Live! really underlined to me that the year 2022, with all the challenges and uncertainties it has brought, will come to be seen as a milestone in the journey towards a net zero cold chain. The drivers for change have certainly shifted up several gears and the cold chain is responding with resilience and innovation.
Most dramatically, soaring energy costs have accelerated investment energy efficiency measures throughout the UK’s cold chain infrastructure. At the same time, the cost of powering Transport Refrigeration Units (TRUs) with diesel leaped as the red diesel rebate ended earlier this year. And as the Chairman of the Climate Change Committee Lord Deben emphasised while speaking at Cold Chain Live!, we can expect regulation to stretch businesses further and further as UK Government strives for a net zero economy by 2050.
Cold Chain Live! also demonstrated that the adoption of sustainable cold chain technologies is surging. There are more low emission vehicles and equipment on our roads, more energy efficient systems going into cold stores, and more renewable energy generation coming on stream at operators’ sites. Data monitoring and analysis is becoming more refined, with submetering increasingly found in cold stores to give a laser focus on energy consumption and the efficiency of refrigeration systems. Achieving the same levels of energy efficiency in older cold stores remains a challenge.
While Cold Chain Live! demonstrated our industry’s progress, foresight and investment as businesses navigate an extremely challenging operating environment, Government support for our industry’s sustainable growth has not been keeping pace.
We are calling on Government to make a series of changes that will boost the cold chain’s progress towards net zero, including updating the planning system to better support the development of renewable energy infrastructure on cold chain sites and support towards the cost of grid connections. Cold chain operators also need more clarity from Government on future national energy infrastructure systems, and the kind of support that can be found in other countries for trialling and transitioning to emission-free vehicle refrigeration.
The Cold Chain Federation will be making the case for all these actions – and demonstrating why they matter for food chain resilience and for the UK’s sustainable economic growth – to the newly appointed Ministerial teams at every opportunity.
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