Shropshire Chamber Partnership meeting focuses on AI and sustainability
Shropshire Chamber of Commerce’s new Sustainability Partnership has been exploring how artificial intelligence can accelerate the business community’s efforts to become more eco-friendly.
The lecture theatre at Lilleshall National Sports and Conferencing Centre hosted the second meeting of the group, which brought in expert speakers from as far afield as Romania.
Presentations and discussions highlighted AI’s potential to transform sustainability from a compliance challenge into a competitive advantage - from energy-efficient logistics to intelligent waste reduction, recycling, and manufacturing.
Guest speakers included Lewis Prince of Purple Frog Systems, Vlad Cazan from KFactory, Jordan Tassell of iconsys, Denise Brinton from Staysafe PPE, and Howard Betts of Shropshire and Telford Community Energy.
Lewis, a senior AI engineer at Telford-based Purple Frog, explained why the use of smaller AI models had the potential to lower a company’s costs and environmental impact – highlighting Google’s revelation that Ai is a main factor in its 27% rise in electricity use.
Vlad Cazan jetted in from Romania to deliver a presentation at the event. He outlined a case study showing how AI systems had immediately reduced emissions at one automotive company by 5%, and increased managers’ time to focus on their core activities by 30%.
“It is dangerous to have a 100% reliance on things like ChatGPT because of the ‘garbage in, garbage out’ principle, but if you think artificial intelligence is the future you are falling behind – because it is already a big part of our lives,” he said.
Jordan, head of marine and ports at Telford-based iconsys, explained how his company’s ‘smart power management system’ was helping to optimise the use of energy both at sea, and at ports, sparking debate about how similar principles could also be used in agriculture.
And Denise, managing director of Alveley-based Staysafe PPE, revealed how her business kept track of every single kilogramme of workwear and PPE equipment given to them for recycling or re-purposing.
She said she was ‘amazed’ that the family-run firm was still the only one of its kind in the area – since it recovered over 420 tonnes of waste last year, saving nearly 6,000 tonnes of emissions.
The session was chaired by Andy Whyle of Sustainability West Midlands who said: “We need to understand what the business pain is in relation to sustainability, because the more sustainable we all become, the better this place is for us to live, work and play.
“The success of this partnership is going to be based around joining up businesses with solution providers.”
Jenny Pearson, head of commercial success at Shropshire Chamber, said: “Uniting Shropshire businesses in the common cause of creating not only a more sustainable future, but also a more sustainable present is invaluable.”
The next meeting of the partnership is planned for March 5. To register interest, email enquiries@shropshire-chamber.co.uk or call the Chamber team on 01952 208200.
