Sukhbir Sidhu, 65, who moved to the UK at a young age, and his son Ricky Singh, 38, launched solar panel installation company Evergen Systems in 2011 – aimed at reducing energy consumption and cutting CO2 emissions. In order to test their innovation in the harshest environment, Evergen chose to set up the pilot in Delhi. After successful trials, the pilot was launched in June 2018 and has been acknowledged as the world’s first successful demonstration of cleaning outdoor air at street level. By 2019 Evergen was ranked eighth fastest-growing company in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 and forecasting group turnover of £23 million next year with sights set on building their own UK factory to start manufacturing by 2026.
In an exclusive interview with Asian Voice, Sukhbir addressed concerns about climate change and shared more details about his project.
Q - Please briefly explain the concept of your company and to what extent can it help in impacting climate change?
We are a clean technology company. Evergen was established with a mission to reduce Carbon emissions in the built environment. We started out in 2011 installing Solar systems on homes and went on to install Solar and battery storage systems on commercial properties and Public Sector buildings. As well as saving our customers £thousands on their annual energy bills, all these activities have a direct impact on cutting CO₂ emissions now and for decades to come. With over 23MW installed to date, we are a leading Solar company in the UK. We are working on projects that once completed will take out 172,000 tons of Carbon every year.
Q - At an entrepreneurial level, how do you think companies together can impact climate change?
Large/public companies are required to publish quarterly results so are under constant pressure to show growth in profits. Whilst they will have environmental policies, in most cases, this is just a tick in the box. Small, entrepreneurial companies on the other hand can put a great deal of focus on environmental issues and make a huge impact. For example, in smaller companies, it is easier to adopt, communicate and enforce environmental policies across the entire workforce. It is often the smaller things like reducing waste, which together can make significant differences. I think Government should also step in and offer tax incentives to companies who reduce their Carbon footprint, at the same time impose Carbon taxes on imports. Why are we importing plastic bottles for hand sanitiser halfway around the world from China?
Q - Tell us a bit about the learnings from your project in India.
This was the culmination of a quest to clean urban air pollution. It’s impossible to clean the air mass of a City so working in collaboration with a World Class University we developed a way of cleaning the air in small areas. We call these “microenvironments of clean air where people need to sit, stand, walk or linger”. The solution was a combination of airflow engineering and very high-efficiency air cleaners. Once the development was complete we had to test it and I decided to do that in Delhi, one of the World’s most polluted cities. Dehli air is also polluted most of the year, so we could do long term testing. We spent over six months looking for a site in the centre of Delhi but could not get an agreement from the Municipal authorities. Eventually, we were offered a site at the historic Sikh Gurdwara Rakab Ganj. This has a large car park and the site is also adjacent to the Indian Parliament. We installed our pilot CleanAirZone in May and scientists from Copenhagen came over to take measurements. After two weeks of tests on 13th June 2018, we launched the project to the press, public and politicians. That day there was a “pollution episode” and pollution was between 500-800μg/m³ in Delhi. However, at our CAZ it was consistently below 30. This was the world’s first successful demonstration of cleaning outdoor air at street level and the media went into overdrive. We were featured on 11 TV News channels and in over 270 newspapers and web media. So much was the publicity that on 20th June, the Minister of Environment of India, Dr Harsh Vardhan personally came to visit the pilot and learn about our solution. We kept the pilot running for another four months before getting independent validation. In October, National Physical Laboratory, the International measurements and standards institute ran their own tests and Certified our solution. Today Evergen is the only company in the World to be Certified to clean outdoor air. India has provided us with a great case study and validation of our technology.
Q - How many more Evergens would it take to bring about a real change in pollution levels?
This year two entrepreneurs are making plans to send space vehicles to Mars, yet we can’t solve a centuries-old problem of urban air pollution. Fact is, if you really want to improve air quality now, there are only two options (1) stop polluting (2) start cleaning. The first one is impossible as we can get polluted air from overseas (pollution particles can travel hundreds or even thousands of miles). To do and the second requires investment. So far Governments, Local Authorities, Cities and Municipalities have focused on transport as it’s the easiest to blame the motorist, also it generates revenues. The London Congestion charge was introduced in February 2003, T-Charge in October 2017 and ULEZ in April 2019. Whilst £billions have been collected from motorists there has been NO measurable reduction in particle pollution. So, unless Governments and authorities start investing in air cleaning solutions, there will be no improvement. Air is a shared resource, so why should private companies invest in developing technologies to clean urban air, if no one is prepared to pay for it? Evergen has made the investment and commitment and so far, we are one of the very few.
Q - What are your plans on expanding in the UK?
The pandemic has bought the issue of air hygiene into sharp focus. Organisations who were not even prepared to speak to us pre-covid are now keen to meet us. Our air cleaning technology not only captures microfine particles but also destroys 99.5% of organic matter including pollen, bacteria, VOCs and viruses. An important feature of Evergen Air is its ability to trap and annihilate microorganisms as tiny as 100nm. That’s smaller than Covid19 which has an average size of 126nm. Whilst solar energy still remains our core business, I expect Evergen Air to become a significant business. We plan to set up a manufacturing base in the UK and will also have an R&D facility here. We have a roadmap of air pollution technologies we want to develop.
Q - How can the UK and Indian governments play an important role especially with COP26 coming up, to help entrepreneurs like you?
Whether it’s in UK or India, Governments need to change a number of important things (1) the pace at which they adopt new ideas and technologies (2) Reach out to smaller, innovative companies and not just the huge corporations who are fat and happy and not agile (3) INVEST, INVEST, INVEST. Private companies will only risk developing new technologies if they know there is a potential for return. The Government will say “we are investing £billions on measures to combat Climate change”. This is true but how much of that money filters down to small innovative companies? The process of navigating Government schemes and grants is hugely complicated and cumbersome and small companies rarely have the time and resources to apply. Funding is also a huge barrier. Whilst large corporations can raise money from the market or banks, smaller innovative companies are seen as risky by the banks so borrowing is difficult. Also, the banks demand personal guarantees so Directors are expected to put their homes on the line.
Britain had the Green Investment Bank which was dedicated to lending to environmental projects. But this was sold in 2017 to Australia’s Macquarie Bank and that avenue closed. The Government received huge criticism for this and is now announcing a new British Infrastructure Bank. We will wait and see.
