Groups

Climate Change Group

At a glance

The objectives of our Climate Change Group is to explore climate change from the perspective of the technology sector, to help identify business opportunities for members and to share information and best practice.

Membership of this group is for Intellect members only. Please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you would like to know more.

Upcoming Meetings:

08/05/2013 - Policy briefing with DECC on EUETS Phase III

Evaluating the carbon impact of ICT
or
The answer to life, the universe and everything

Understanding the limitations of LCA-based carbon footprinting methodologies

Current Activities

The group is currently engaged in:

Working hard with Intellect's Data Centres Group to inform government of the strong concerns many of our members have with the Carbon Reduction Commitment and working on what may be a better alternative if CRC is ultimately scrapped. This has involved a multitude of consultation responses; evidence sessions; group meetings at Intellect and a tour of a major London data centre for the policy leads at the Department of Energy and Climate Change;
Working with DEFRA on members concerns with Green Procurement - specifically Government Buying Standard (GBS) for Printers, Servers and Mobile phones;
Collating industry case studies from members on the impact of environmental legislation sought by DEFRA;
Producing a white paper that sets out the capabilities of the various life cycle assessment (LCA) based approaches to evaluate the carbon impact of the ICT sector and explains what they can and cannot be used for.

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Chair: Kate Craig-Wood

Kate Craig-Wood
Memset Ltd

Our Chair for the climate change group is Kate Craig-Wood, Managing Director of Memset, an award winning web hosting company. Kate has a long track record in seeking out and delivering environmentally friendly solutions to customers. Kate also sits on Intellect’s Main Board and therefore provides a very useful link between activity and governance.

Kate Craig-Wood is co-founder and managing director of Memset®, a leading provider of managed hosting and cloud computing solutions.

A self-taught coder from the age of 9, Kate has always had a deep interest in technology and business. After completing her MSc in Biomedical science she joined Arthur Andersen Business Consulting as an IT consultant. She went on to head business development for Easyspace Ltd, one of the UK's largest Web hosting companies, and subsequently formed Memset with her brother, Nick, in late 2002 with the UK's first main-stream virtual dedicated server product.

Since inception Memset has been a leader in the field of virtualisation and openly share their experiences and methodologies. Memset is Britain's first Carbon Neutral ISP, has been voted the UK's Best Web Host for 5 years running in the PCPro service and reliability awards, and has also won several other business and environmental awards.

Kate is passionate about green IT personally, as well as through Memset. She chairs Intellect UK's Climate Change group, as well as sitting on their main and operations boards, providing important linkage between activity and governance.

Kate is also the external communications officer of BCS's influential Data Centre Specialist Group. Recently she also co-led the technical strand of phase two of the Cabinet Office's G-Cloud and App Store project. Kate takes an active interest in local and national business affairs and is frequently quoted in the technical press on the topics of green ICT and cloud computing.

As well as her interests in ICT and environmental issues, Kate keenly follows a number of scientific fields, enjoys SCUBA diving, skiing, sailing & motorcycling and holds a pilot's licence for helicopters. Kate was also the first woman to tandem-jump Everest in October 2008, raising money for getting girls into IT.

Vice Chair: Mary-Anne King

Vice Chair
Mary-Anne King
Microsoft UK

About the Climate Change Group

About the Climate Change Group

The topic of climate change has moved up the business agenda to the extent that it has become a board-level issue viewed both as a risk and as an opportunity. At the same time we have seen a dramatic increase in the attention paid to climate change by policy makers and by customers which is changing the business environment. Intellect has been very active in the debate and has promoted the view that our sector's technologies have a critical role to play not only in mitigating emissions but also in underpinning the move to a low carbon economy (see High Tech: Low Carbon case studies).

The objectives of Intellect's Climate Change Group are to explore this topic from the perspective of the technology sector, to help identify business opportunities for members and to share information and best practice. This is a speaker-led group which will discuss topics relevant to our sector within this important agenda. So for instance we will cover issues like the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (previously known as the Carbon Reduction Commitment), funding opportunities for cleantechor low carbon technologies, business opportunities for the sector, access to mechanisms to help stimulate demand - such as the Energy Technology List, carbon accounting, and policy developments both pre- and post-election. The list of topics is open and we welcome suggestions from members.

Intellect's Energy and Environment

Intellect holds witness sessions with BIS on green growth

Intellect holds witness sessions with BIS on green growth

Intellect recently hosted a series of witness sessions with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) asking Intellect members what they needed from government to help them flourish in a low carbon economy. A review of these sessions.

Osborne maintains Climate Change Agreements in 2011 Budget

Osborne maintains Climate Change Agreements in 2011 Budget

Intellect was pleased to hear George Osborne announce in the March 2011 Budget that Climate Change Agreements (CCAs) will be maintained until 2023. This followed Intellect sending a letterto the Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change, Greg Barker MP, in January 2011 encouraging the maintenance of CCAs.

Intellect also recently responded to a consultation issued by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on the subject of 'burdensome regulations' which could and should be reviewed. We took the opportunity to raise industry concerns regarding the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), and our response.

Our first meeting took place – auspiciously or not! – on the morning of Friday 13 November, 2009, at Intellect where a member of DECC was present to explain how the CRC will work both from a policy perspective and in practical terms and answer questions from members. For copies of papers or other outputs please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Climate change related links

Get in touch

Emma Fryer
Associate Director - Climate Change Programmes
T 01609 772 137
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James Harbidge
Programme Manager
T 020 7331 2173
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