Scottish renewables tick ESG box and cut production costs

New and innovative companies are being drawn to Glasgow’s advanced manufacturing business community, where Scotland’s reputation for renewable power generation ticks the ESG box and helps minimise production costs.

“It’s huge. For a lot of the advanced manufacturing businesses, their biggest cost is probably energy so it makes complete commercial sense to keep that down,” said Paul Broad, director, sales and leasing, Avison Young.

“Renewable energy is cheap and easy to come by,” he told Real Asset Insight’s Richard Betts. “Also, ethically, a lot of these companies want to be doing the right thing. They’ve committed to net zero carbon, whether that’s through offsets or through renewable energy resources.”

He pointed out that in addition to the renewable energy generation occurring throughout Scotland, the City of Glasgow has plans for a district heating network. “That will really reduce costs for these occupiers and actually will allow them to offset their carbon. I’m not sure they’ll ever get to net zero without offsetting in some way, but certainly bringing forward the innovation districts in the city and putting the correct infrastructure in will allow them to be successful.”