Daily Telegraph: Shell offers environmental springboard for products: “Lord Oxburgh, who stepped down as chairman of Shell Transport and Trading two months ago, is heading the green initiative, called Shell Springboard.”: Tuesday 11 October 2005
(Filed: 11/10/2005)
Shell's former chairman believes that high oil prices mean it now makes economic sense to develop environmentally friendly products and technologies, such as solar power combined with pasture. However, few small firms believe they can take advantage of the opportunity, research has revealed.
To encourage more companies to grasp the opportunity, the oil giant is offering up to £40,000 to help bring a qualifying business idea to market.
Pollsters Mori found that 87pc of the 200 small and medium-sized businesses questioned said demand for products and services to tackle climate change represented a "significant opportunity". But only 18pc said they planned to develop their own products, the vast majority saying it was either not relevant to them or that their business was too small to have an impact.
Lord Oxburgh, who stepped down as chairman of Shell Transport and Trading two months ago, is heading the green initiative, called Shell Springboard.
"There is now scope for a wide range of devices and services which a decade ago would have made no economic sense and for which there would have been no demand," he said. The market opportunity has arisen because of the price of oil.
"$60 oil: it's as simple as that," said Lord Oxburgh. "The Oil price is now high. There's a consensus that, short of a major recession, it's not going to come down a long way. That changes the economics of renewables."
He said the market would now take over. "Environmental concerns were not doing it by themselves," he said. "Big companies are trying to do things and non-governmental organisations are trying to do things. But when the price comes in things really change."
Lord Oxburgh said he envisaged between six and 12 awards of up to £40,000 to be made in the first year as "no-strings attached lump sums".
"If the thing works and the business wants to go further, Shell would not rule out further collaboration," he added.
The deadline is November 4.
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