PIOW-NZ Pioneers Isle Of Wight Net Zero

The Isle of Wight Council Mission Zero Climate and Environment Strategy 2021-2040 sets out the council's aspirations and targets to achieve net-carbon zero in its own operations (by 2030) and as an island (by 2040) with no more than 15% offset taking place.

A full Action Plan has taken a whole systems approach to achieving net zero, which includes a detailed emissions baseline for the island and examines ten emissions categories. The three largest sources of emissions for the island are commercial and industrial (23.6%), transport (22.9%) and domestic heating (22.2%). The Plan has identified the following as potential interventions to achieve the desired reductions:

* Transport: EV purchase, Community behaviours (cycling/public transport)
* Domestic: Retrofit fabric, Alternative Supply (heat pump)
* Commercial: Retrofit, Heating supply, Process efficiency

However, there are considerable non-technical challenges to achieving these objectives. As the report highlights in section 8 "two of the biggest obstacles being funding and engagement". The PIOW-NZ project will create the following concrete initiatives to address the system non-technical barriers to NetZero transition.

**NZ Engagement Team**: End user engagement and behavioural change is the foremost challenge to long lasting change. It is, however, a complex problem, running horizontally across the energy systems, and for which there is no single, simple answer. Our approach will be to innovate-measure-refine-repeat. The team will implement a fail-fast paradigm, to encourage creativity, but rapidly test, keeping what is working and losing what isn't.

**NZ Training Hub**: A training hub will be setup up with the objective of ensuring there is sufficient skilled personnel to supply the net zero demand. This hub will initially focus on the immediate building retrofit issue, but can be adapted to other skills gaps.

**Financial Analysis and Stimulus Evaluation Unit**: The FASE unit will have the dual objectives of generating the detailed cost benefit analysis for the disparate inventions needed (everything from EV purchase, to heat pump installation to industrial process redesign) and the creation of a financial signposting service to help users and companies access the financial products to deliver the program.

**Community Logistics and Supply**: The scale of building and energy fabric retrofit required to achieve the impact designed are huge. Fundamental innovation is needed in both governance and execution. Our proposal includes a novel community owned warehousing and logistics service (a virtual factory) to power transition.

**IOT Digital Twin**: Finally, we have the digital infrastructure, which underpins the other initiatives.