Securing the UK’s sustainable energy future

Sustainability Live, Energy Recovery and NEMEX will become ‘edie Live’, taking place 17-18 May at the NEC Birmingham. CEO Amanda Barnes discusses what we can expect from the show.

Sustainability Live, Energy Recovery and NEMEX have merged under the edie Live brand. For more than 17 years edie.net, Faversham House’s digital portal, has provided authoritative industry coverage for sustainability, environment, facilities and energy professionals. With the exhibition rebrand, edie is now the UK’s largest portfolio of energy and sustainability information and resources. Through its conferences, awards, webinars, website and exhibitions, edie’s audience can enjoy an all-year-round programme of timely business information, thought leadership, innovation and learning.

Sustainability Live to edie Live
In 2014 we undertook some extensive market research and engaged with more than 2,500 stakeholders. We were curious about what sustainability actually meant to our visitors, exhibitors and partners. Following the research, focus groups, surveys and interviews it became clear to us that sustainability meant a whole raft of different things to people depending on which group we were talking to, covering everything from resource efficiency to global environmental issues. It also showed us that our audience – those energy, sustainability and facilities professionals in both the public and private sector – often have a wide remit.

One day they could be looking at energy purchasing or energy efficiency, the next legislative compliance or ways of moving their organisation to meet low carbon targets, engaging their company and stakeholders in corporate social responsibility measures or simply making their organisation more profitable. We wanted a brand that didn’t exclude initiatives or groups of people through its name. Going with a brand, for instance, that just highlighted energy would have precluded so much more of what our audience deal with. Luckily for us we had a ready-made solution with the edie brand.

edie.net has been serving this very audience for over 17 years as the UK’s leading digital resource. With more than 60,000 monthly visitors it has developed a strong reputation for authoritative industry coverage and editorial integrity. Coupled with this we had 19 brands. It was confusing for us never mind our audience. The relaunched edie brand simply provides essential business information 24/7, 365 days a year through online, print and face-to-face events and awards.

edie Live is more than just a two-day exhibition. We are building on the rich heritage and success of NEMEX, Energy Recovery and Sustainability Live whilst moving the agenda forward with a more holistic all‑year‑round approach and exploring topics core to our audience, such as resource efficiency, the circular economy and water management.

Who should go to edie and why?
edie Live will cater for anyone whose organisation has to deal with the strategic as well as the practical aspects of sustainable business and resource efficiency – be it energy management, water, waste, corporate and social responsibility, or low carbon.

The show will cover three imperatives of the industry: bottom line, compliance and reputation. It’s about driving organisations or businesses to look for higher profits in a sustainable manner, complying with legislative demands and ensuring that their reputation is protected.

We offer content targeted at the strategic decision maker, i.e. the C- and D-Suite Executive, plus comprehensive information for the practitioners such as energy, sustainability, facilities and environment managers. The show’s reach is cross-sector, so we deal with manufacturing, retail and big commercial organisations with large property portfolios as well as the public sector.

Industry challenges
Political changes have come to the fore recently with the government’s cuts to various renewables incentives.

The manner in which this has been done has come under a lot of criticism within the industry. I think people understand the need to save public money, but there is also a growing sentiment that the current government has missed an opportunity by not consulting the industry and asking them to come up with creative solutions to reduce subsidies.

It is posing a real risk to a nascent industry and has the potential to undermine progress made towards a truly low carbon economy.

Secondly, the main challenge for those on the ground is still about how to convince their boardrooms, and often their colleagues, that a relatively small capital investment will deliver big longer term savings.

Being a sustainability manager in an organisation can sometimes be a lonely job and we offer them the tools and support through a plethora of case studies and evidence based research, to put forward the convincing arguments they need.

What’s new at the next show?
In 2015 we experimented with a number of new interactive features including the ‘Topic Trails’ and the ‘Innovation Zone’. They both proved highly popular, so we will be expanding on these initiatives. Following visitor feedback we will have a stronger focus on topics such as resource efficiency, energy efficiency and onsite generation. The show will bring to life the major themes of the market, address the biggest challenges in the seminar and conference sessions and provide a showcase of leading suppliers for the audience to try before they buy. 

We are also working very closely with our editorial team as well as talking to our audience through focus groups and surveys to identify specific challenges to ensure that our seminars and half-day conferences are relevant to strategists and practitioners alike.

In addition to that we are focusing on new and improved networking opportunities during the show as collaboration is key to our audience. The show is the place where our sustainability network comes to life.

Edie Live will be taking place 17-18 May 2016 at the NEC, Birmingham.

Further Information
www.edielive.com