Steph Locke at Impact Festival 2021
Sustainability is no longer just a nice-to-have, but a business imperative. Organisations have a responsibility to do what they can to reduce their environmental impact and as the signs of climate change become more evident. This year’s Impact Festival was one of Europe’s first community-based events established to accelerate sustainability. Our CEO, Steph Locke, contributed to an EIT panel, discussing The Future of Sustainable Manufacturing. Â
Steph focused on the power of AI to drive more sustainable manufacturing where she presented several practical applications of AI that can reduce waste including predictive maintenance, defect detection and generative design. She outlined some basic sustainable IT practices including going paperless, moving to the cloud with a carbon-neutral provider and adopting green software products.
Steph was joined by Kurt Lermann from Procter & Gamble and Prof Hannes Utikal, Head of the Center for Industry and Sustainability at Provadis University. The keynote speaker was Dr. Christian Bölling, EIT Manufacturing’s Managing Director and the panel was moderated by Dr. Wolfgang Kniejski.Â
Key themes included the transition towards CO2 neutrality in 2045 and the challenges associated with that, deep tech innovation, the role of startups in sustainable manufacturing and how academia can support re-orientation from labour-intensive work into knowledge-intensive workforces. Â
We’ve looked at some of these key areas manufacturers can target to become more sustainable in a series of blog posts we released over the last few weeks, check them out to see some of the ways you could implement them in your organisation. Alternatively, get in touch with us to book a call and find out how we could help you on your journey to becoming more sustainable. Â
Further reading
- Design, manufacture, and ship products more sustainably with AI
- Cloud Migration: important for a green future
- Digitalising your business processes to be more sustainable
- Cardiff-based AI startup is the first UK startup to join the largest European manufacturing ecosystem (nightingalehq.ai)
- EIT Manufacturing - all you need to know
FAQs
What is Steph Locke's broader sustainability engagement?
Steph Locke’s participation in Impact Festival 2021 reflects her engagement with sustainability as both a personal commitment and a strategic priority for Nightingale HQ. Her involvement extends beyond speaking engagements: as a member of the EU Steering Committee for AI, she has contributed to policy discussions about how AI regulation should address sustainability considerations. Through GoSmarter’s product development, she has ensured that sustainability measurement — carbon tracking, emissions calculation, material efficiency — is built into the platform’s core capabilities rather than treated as a feature to be added later.
The Impact Festival appearance positioned Nightingale HQ in a community of technology companies, investors, and policymakers who see sustainability as central to the future of business, not peripheral to it. This positioning is strategically important for GoSmarter as the manufacturing sector faces growing pressure to demonstrate sustainability performance to customers, investors, and regulators.
What is the panel: Achieving Sustainable Manufacturing?
The panel at Impact Festival 2021 brought together representatives from manufacturing operations, investment, research, and technology to examine the question of sustainable manufacturing from multiple angles. The consensus that emerged from such discussions typically reflects a recognition that sustainable manufacturing is achievable, but requires coordinated action across the supply chain — not just individual businesses making isolated improvements.
For Steph, the most important message is one of practical urgency: the tools to reduce manufacturing waste and emissions exist today, they are accessible to SMEs as well as large enterprises, and the cost of inaction — in both financial and environmental terms — is continuing to rise.