Collaboration to drive industrial decarbonisation

Industrial decarbonisation – a complex mix of varying needs 

In the UK, six industrial clusters account for around half of the nation’s industrial greenhouse gas emissions. The operations at these locations are essential for the whole country, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look to tackle the environmental impact.

That said, there are several challenges to industrial decarbonisation, with high costs and investment barriers at the top of the list. The capital expenditure required to implement the necessary infrastructure is considerable, and a key enabler to unlock plant-level investment in decarbonisation technology, and confidence to commit to associated operational changes. This is coupled with a wide range of regulatory processes that must be followed, as well as the technical and economic challenges to developing a green hydrogen and carbon capture network, which could fulfil much of the requirement for decarbonisation.

We recently developed a report to assess the potential for high-impact decarbonisation, drawing on our work with partners at the Kemsley Industrial Cluster Local Industrial Decarbonisation Project (LIDP) in Kent. Among the many findings, the paper underscores the complexity of developing an industrial cluster roadmap for decarbonisation, outlining competing demands across physical infrastructure delivery, along with associated economic, environmental, financial and regulatory influences. To help navigate this, it pays to have a central team responsible for pulling together individual stakeholder workstreams and coordinating an overarching programme of activity. This provides clarity, aids effective sequencing of works and, ultimately, boosts each stakeholder organisation’s confidence in their own business investment decisions around their requirements for wider infrastructure commitments. Crucially, these partners must be aligned on the intended outcomes and pull in the same direction to achieve programme success. This is where the delivery partner comes in.

Collaboration in action

The value of a single guiding mind has been seen many times over on major infrastructure programmes, but it’s an emerging concept within the industrial decarbonisation space. There are some ambitious initiatives at the vanguard, however, including the Kemsley Industrial Cluster (LIDP), where Mace has played an active role.

Before the LIDP was conceived, the cluster benefitted from a strong sense of collaboration among the five industrial partners based on the campus, as well as the University of Kent, founded on an agreement that there is a better way to do things. Mace was brought in to deliver the business case for the cluster, develop the financial model and critical programme requirements and investment decision points.

One of the biggest challenges with the delivery partner model is a variation in definition and associated misuse of the term, as our CEO for Consult, Davendra Dabasia, has previously outlined. And so, while I wouldn’t suggest our role at Kemsley meets true delivery partner criteria, what’s most important is that it is laying the foundations for the model to be used in the future. By moving things in the right direction, momentum will grow and the work at Kemsley can be transferred and scaled. Indeed, the ability to translate and adapt core principles, scaling them to the programme is one of the greatest strengths of the model. 

Decarbonising with a delivery partner 

The delivery partner model is well-suited to deliver industrial decarbonisation because it places emphasis on consistency, transparency and shared accountability across the entire project lifecycle. In an era of greenwashing and competing stakeholder and shareholder demands, there is no room for error; information must flow freely and must be accurate.

To realise the full benefits of decarbonisation at a cluster level there needs to be a co-ordinating mind to align, schedule and manage each individual project and initiative to the delivery of wider enabling infrastructure required. Final investment decisions for each partner will be reliant on certainty that enabling infrastructure is not only planned, but committed to, and is progressing in line with partner project requirements. Measuring outcomes, managing joint risks and the establishment of robust governance is crucial to the success of delivering decarbonisation at an industrial cluster level.

In essence, the delivery partner can act as an integrated extension of the cluster team, handling the intricacies of programme delivery to allow the client to maintain a higher-level, strategic perspective and focus on their core organisational objectives.

The focus on measured outcomes and meeting milestones is crucial for achieving ambitious decarbonisation targets. The delivery model can help industrial clusters like the Kemsley Industrial Cluster by providing the necessary collaboration for aligning the diverse interests and supporting the successful implementation of decarbonisation projects. 

By fostering trust, transparency, and accountability, the delivery partner model can help overcome traditional challenges associated with major programmes and accelerate the transition towards a sustainable, low-carbon industrial future. The experiences and learning from projects like HyNet, and the Kemsley Industrial Cluster LIDP, when combined with the proven benefits of the delivery partner approach, provide a compelling pathway for achieving significant and lasting reductions in industrial emissions. 

Deploying the principles of the delivery partner model early in the planning and development stages of industrial decarbonisation initiatives provides an integration expert at the heart of this complex and rapidly changing landscape and can provide the information required for industry and government(s) to work together effectively, share risk and reward, and ultimately deliver industrial decarbonisation at the scale required to meet global climate targets.