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A Year at St. Helena- Update from Dr Paula Holt MBE, Destination Chesterfield Board Member

21st December 2020

The following blog has been written by Destination Chesterfield board member, Dr Paula Holt MBE, Pro Vice-Chancellor Dean of the College of Health, Psychology and Social Care at the University of Derby.

Dr Holt covers the progress made this year at Chesterfield’s St. Helena University of Derby Campus, along with the challenges faced by the University throughout the Covid-19 pandemic…

2020 started like any other year at the University of Derby’s St Helena Campus in Chesterfield. Our September cohort of Nursing students had settled in, we were preparing to welcome a new cohort in March, our calendar of business events kicked off, and our business incubation tenants returned after the Christmas break. But life and study changed dramatically in March, when the government announced a UK-wide lockdown due to Coronavirus.

Staff and students adapted quickly to new ways of working as teaching moved to online delivery, and later to a blended approach with a mixture of on-campus and remote learning.

Around 500 of our nursing students from the University’s College of Health, Psychology and Social Care have supported frontline workers in local hospitals and other care settings. The University has provided a range of support to the NHS, local councils, organisations and communities, including the loan of a digital mobile x-ray machine to Chesterfield Royal Hospital, iPads to help patients keep in touch with their families while in hospital and extensive donations of PPE when supply was low.

As we approach the end of the year, we also move towards the completion of the D2N2 Local Growth Fund (LGF) project to develop the Chesterfield University Campus, which we started back in November 2015. The £3.48 million investment from the LGF, plus investment from the University, has allowed us to deliver higher level skills opportunities for school leavers and adult learners, many of which are the first in their family to go to university, and support the economic growth and resilience of businesses in Chesterfield.

I am delighted that, six months before the deadline, we have hit all LGF output targets set for project, including learner numbers, short courses completed, job creation, knowledge transfer partnerships, and refurbished learning space. This is testament to the hard work of our teaching staff, commercial team and strategic partners, including Destination Chesterfield, Chesterfield Borough Council, Chesterfield Royal Hospital, and Derbyshire Voluntary Action.

CommUNIty Chesterfield, a National Lottery funded project putting the ‘UNI’ into the community, has supported residents, the voluntary sector and students through this challenging period. We have missed not having face to face contact with the community on campus, however we have been reaching out in various ways, such as student placements, virtual shared learning sessions and community led initiatives.

As a University, we take our civic role seriously, and I am immensely proud of the work our staff and students have been doing during the pandemic. As we look ahead to 2021 we will embrace the new ‘normal’, learning from the creativity and innovation this strange period has manifested, and we will continue to support the Chesterfield community and businesses through, and beyond, these challenging times.

The University of Derby supports the marketing and economic growth of the town through Chesterfield Champions, a network of over 180 organisations across Chesterfield and North Derbyshire.

Sustainable East Midlands campaign launched to put region at forefront of UK’s ‘Build Back Greener’ vision

10th November 2020

East Midlands Chamber has urged the region’s businesses to go green and reap the benefits to their bottom line in a new campaign.

The Sustainable East Midlands initiative will highlight both the business case and regulatory requirements for companies that engage with the low-carbon agenda.

It includes a new online information portal that will point firms to financial support available to them and a series of educational events, beginning with the East Midlands Energy Summit later this month.

The campaign has been launched following research by the Chamber and University of Derby, which highlighted how sustainability is rising up the business agenda – but also showed a gap in awareness for many organisations.

East Midlands Chamber chief executive Scott Knowles said: “With the seismic shift in the economy and the way businesses look to develop new ways to operate, there is no better time to focus on the opportunities and the potential offered by the sustainability agenda.

“With its manufacturing heritage, innovative businesses and academic base, the East Midlands has the raw ingredients to be at the forefront of delivering a low-carbon economy – particularly important at a time when the UK Government has a vision to ‘build back greener’ from the pandemic.

“This isn’t just about sustainability for the sake of being greener, as this translates into the bottom line of businesses through efficiency and resilience. Adopting greener credentials reduces running costs and helps to win new contracts and business.

“The Sustainable East Midlands campaign will play a pivotal role in shining a spotlight on the great companies already heavily engaged in the low-carbon agenda, while signposting more businesses in this direction – because now is the time to take responsibility and reap the rewards.”

University of Derby and East Midlands Chamber research on sustainability engagement and awareness among businesses

Sustainable East Midlands is the product of a long-standing partnership between the Chamber and University of Derby, which has yielded unique data about the region’s engagement with the sustainability agenda.

In February, the university included a set of questions related to this topic for the Q1 2020 edition of the Chamber’s Quarterly Economic Survey, which explores a range of business interests to gauge the state of the region’s economy.

More than 400 Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire businesses took part in the survey and it showed the percentage of businesses deriving turnover from low-carbon and pro-environmental goods and services has nearly doubled between 2015 and 2020 – growing from 16% to 31% during this period.

Just over a third (35%) of businesses said they were integrating clean growth into their business plan, while the proportion of firms not considering clean growth opportunities at all had decreased from 36% in 2018 to 14% in 2020.

On the flip side, four in 10 businesses said they did not feel well-informed about support for clean growth.
Dr Fred Paterson, an associate professor at the University of Derby and the Low Carbon Business Network lead at Derby Business School, led the research team.

He said: “There is growing evidence that companies putting environmental sustainability at the heart of their operations are more successful and more likely to survive over time than other firms.

“At the same time, the UK low-carbon economy has been growing steadily for more than a decade and has weathered storms like the financial crash of 2008 and the Covid-19 pandemic better than other sectors of the economy.

“It’s no surprise that our research has shown the number of businesses in the East Midlands that provide pro-environmental goods and services has doubled over the past five years.

“The Sustainable East Midlands initiative is therefore a really welcome support for the increasing number of smaller business that want to build their sustainable credentials and grow their business in ways that are also positive for the environment.”

The topic of sustainability was also discussed recently at the Destination Chesterfield Round Table event, with several local business figures speaking on what more can be done to drive sustainability in our region.