Welsh Business Wins £40,000 Climate Change Innovation Prize
2009-02-20 15:54:42
A Llanelli based business with a big idea for tackling climate change has won a Shell Springboard award of £40,000, giving their business a valuable boost in a programme designed to promote the growth of the low carbon economy in the UK.
Connaught Engineering Ltd received the award for its Hybrid Plus, a versatile energy-saving bolt-on device which can be fitted to car engines and improves fuel consumption by up to twenty five per cent, whilst also significantly reducing CO2 emissions.
One van fitted with a Hybrid Plus could make a sixty tonne reduction in CO2 emissions over one hundred thousand miles. Multiplied across fleets, this could add up to a huge environmental benefit for the car industry.
Shell Springboard gives a financial boost to innovative, commercially viable business ideas that tackle climate change. The programme encourages a positive business response to the challenge of climate change by providing a no-strings financial boost to small ideas with innovative products and services that could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and really make a difference.
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| Paul Snaith, Geoff Matthews & Paul Turner |
Geoff Matthews, Operations Director of Connaught Engineering Ltd said: “Winning the Shell Springboard Award is so meaningful to me, as it recognises the hard work our team has done. This Award will help us financially and will help with bringing our products to market. To be selected by Shell Springboard adds vital credibility to our work”.
Paul Snaith, Vice President Downstream Marketing, Shell Global Solutions said: “Congratulations to Geoff and Connaught Engineering Ltd. The Hybrid Plus not only has huge commercial potential but could have a significant impact on the UK’s carbon emissions. It’s this kind of cutting-edge innovation that has made the UK a world leader in low carbon technology investment. In a difficult economic climate, it has become more important than ever that we continue to foster such independent entrepreneurialism which is so crucial to the UK economy in the long term.”
According to Shell Springboard’s Race Against the Carbon Pound report the UK’s ‘green’ companies attracted over £1billion of venture capital and private equity investment in 2007: 41% of the EU total. This makes the UK the European leader when it comes to attracting venture capital and private equity investment in low carbon technologies, second only to the United States worldwide.
Kate Radford of Cheshire and Warrington Economic Alliance and a judge on the night, said: “It is great to see a high standard of business ideas across all sectors in our region of the UK.”
Connaught Engineering Ltd competed against eight businesses from across the region on 19th February 2009 in Manchester and will now compete to be named as the overall UK winner in London on the 3rd of March.
Other winners included Luminanz, with its energy efficient LED lighting ‘TorusLite’ and Walters Innovations, with their ‘MonVal Bicycle’, a comfortable, electrically assisted bike. They also received awards of £40,000 each.