Perspectives Magazine (September 2024)

Discover the Autumn edition of Perspectives, packed with fresh insights, expert analysis, and the latest industry trends.

Read on to find out about our projects and evidence-based support on offer to help you achieve environmental compliance, take stock of your natural capital assets, identify renewable energy solutions, and assess and restore biodiversity and habitats.

GreenShed: Shaping the future of livestock emissions

Funded by the UK Government, GreenShed is a pioneering project capable of transforming beef production with sustainable, practical solutions. Led by SRUC , the GreenShed consortium offers a blueprint for the future of low-carbon circular beef farming. The shed integrates several advanced technologies to create a low-carbon, circular farming system.

GreenShed is highly cost-effective; it leads to significant savings in energy for farmers while offering the potential for additional income through the sale of surplus energy. A 100-cattle shed using the GreenShed system could save up to ￡1,000 a year in heat energy costs and generate approximately ￡60,000 a year from electricity sales, produce from the vertical farm and a low-carbon premium from the beef produced.

The farming industry has already shown that it is willing to embrace change, and GreenShed is very much part of that. We’re leading the charge, showing that environmental sustainability and agricultural productivity can coexist.

Click here to discover more about GreenShed.

A conversation with Steve Dunkley, HSBC UK's Regional Agriculture Director

Steve Dunkley combines farming roots and finance expertise to drive sustainable agriculture with innovative financial solutions.

HSBC UK has a dedicated agriculture team, with over 100 specialists who manage the day-to-day client relationships in that sector. Their work ensures that the bank can respond to changes in market requirements for agriculture.

HSBC UK also offers a comprehensive range of traditional financial products, but also provides asset finance for equipment, from robotic milkers to tractors, to sustainability-linked finance, ensuring farmers have access to the latest technology to enhance efficiency and productivity.

Steve Dunkely’s vision for the future of agriculture is centred on a successful and profitable industry recognised for its contributions to sustainability, biodiversity, and food production.

In supporting farmers with tailored financial products and expert advice, HSBC UK is not just investing in agriculture but in the future of sustainable farming, ensuring that farmers have the tools and support they need to thrive.

Read Steve Dunkley's full interview here.

Drive value for your business with an ESG strategy

An Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy might seem like a concept reserved for large organisations with extensive resources and budgets. However, that is not the case, an organisation of any size and sector can adopt and benefit from an ESG strategy.

By integrating ESG principles, even smaller entities can enhance their sustainability, improve their social impact, and establish stronger governance practices, which can lead to long-term business success and positive community contributions.

An ESG strategy measures an organisation's impact on people's lives and the environment. Creating this strategy can offer significant value for your business.

In an extremely competitive local, national and global marketplace, competing on price or being first to market are short term solutions. Environmental, social and governmental concerns now sit at the forefront of decision making and those businesses set up to address or mitigate those concerns, will be the ones with long term viability, highly attractive to customers, investors and legislators.

Discover more about ESG strategies here.

Advancing a sustainable Scottish supply chain for hemp fibre

Across agriculture, ideas and concepts are continually evolving, developing and challenging our ways of thinking. Over the last couple of years, interest in the production of natural fibres from crops of industrial hemp and flax has rapidly been gaining traction.

There are a small number of innovators who already have, by virtue of their own initiative, well-developed and successful business models. The challenge for new entrants is being able to complete their own supply chain to encompass not only production, but also processing and manufacturing of product to market.?

In the coming months, we will focus on creating an attractive pricing model to encourage farmers to add hemp fibre crops to their rotation.

Not only must this model be economically viable, but it also leverages hemps impressive carbon sequestration abilities, which can extract more carbon in a 120-day growing cycle than the same area of woodland does in a year, contributing positively to climate mitigation efforts.

Read the full article on hemp fibre here.

Discover cutting-edge innovations like digital twinning, get insights into conditionality impacts such as the Whole Farm Plan and learn about the importance of data integrity and trusted networks through our interview with Rory Christie of Dourie Farming Company Ltd. Read the full edition here.