Clean Growth for a Regenerative Local Economy

By John Ferguson, Binn Ecopark

If ever there was a time when we need clarity of vision and purpose to repair the damage of the past few years, this is it.

High energy and food costs, housing shortages, health concerns, climate change and war have all contributed to the challenges across so many areas of life for business, and for people in general.

That’s why, at Binn Ecopark, we started 2023 with a renewed determination to not only weather these storms but to contribute actively towards a better future for all.

As one of the area’s main employers, we know that our business starts at the local level and grows from there. This has been a core philosophy of Allan MacGregor, Binn Group’s CEO, for years. By supporting economic regeneration and local companies we can create a strong, sustainable operation with a clear contribution to clean growth – something we believe is a vital component of the future economy of Perth and Kinross, and wider Tayside.

Our commitment to ensuring continuous innovation is outlined in our ever-evolving Master Plan. Having developed a private renewable energy grid in 2019, we are now looking towards low-carbon energy (wind, solar, hydrogen, biogas) and new circular economy developments for waste materials and local food production. We also hope to see our proposed Training and Skills Development Centre take shape.

On-site projects currently in progress include our advanced plastics recycling and manufacturing platform, insect protein farming, advanced biochar production, a new material reclamation facility and a new wash plant for high-value, recovered aggregates production.

In addition to this, our integrated residualwaste-to-energy facility will soon offer the heat sources required to grow traditionally imported crops, thus driving low food mile production; our aim is to complement this with advanced horticulture developments.

As we move further into 2023, our focus lies firmly on becoming an integral and meaningful part of the area’s economic regeneration ecosystem. This has started already, with exciting plans to extend our private renewable energy grid into Perth, thereby facilitating the opportunity for lowcarbon, price-controlled energy to PKC, its agencies, and those businesses with higher energy needs.

Alongside this, we are a core member of the Tay Cities Deal Clean Growth Group, and we work hard to connect our own ambitions with those of our peers. The James Hutton Institute, Perth Eco Innovation Park, Perth West, and the Broxden Smart Transport Hub here in Perth and Kinross, as well as the Angus Council Mercury Programme, the University of St Andrews Eden Campus, and the Michelin Scotland Innovation Park are all focused on stimulating area-wide growth through regenerative economic drivers.

A great example of this connected focus is the pending April launch of the Tay Cities Clean Growth Nexus, an online platform to stimulate and support these connections and to promote Tayside as a progressive location for inward investment in clean technology.

With global supply chains under significant stress there will be an inevitable shift towards regional self-sufficiency, which in turn offers opportunities for better, fairer, and stronger, local and regional economies.
I believe that in the Tay Cities region we have the foundations necessary to take advantage of this shift: progressive local authorities, a strong network of further and higher education and research institutes, supportive public agencies, a diverse SME sector and world-leading companies.

Couple these foundations with increasingly self-supporting local communities and it is easy to see that the future is in our own hands.

For further information on Binn Ecopark contact: [email protected]