ROLLS-ROYCE
environment actually being truly collaborative . I think this is because we ' re recognising the power of those third-parties who are not aerospace experts , but are able to bring something to the party .”
The Sustainability Imperative Rolls-Royce ’ s sustainability programme includes a broad array of initiatives that further epitomise the procurement function ’ s digitally-enabled thinking . One example is managing recycled material to repurpose in Rolls-Royce engines . “ We ' ve been doing that for a long time , but we ' ve never talked about that as anything other than as a financial benefit ,” Godfrey says . “ We ' re now able to talk about that as contributing to our net zero aspirations by not digging large amounts of metal out of the ground for a second time . It also de-risks our supply chain , because , for example , every unit of nickel that you can recycle , you don ' t have to buy one from the market and be exposed to either shortages in material or speculation in price .”
In energy , the firm has leveraged internal innovation from Rolls-Royce ’ s power system business – something the company is open to sharing with other organisations – to decarbonise two of its largest footprints in the UK .
“ Thinking about our overall energy mix is important and not everybody today can buy green energy nor can they build cleaner , mega power plants at scale ,” Godfrey says . “ Our approach is to take standard technology that exists and package it up to make it modular and smaller . Relatively speaking , it ’ s as big as a football stadium , but nonetheless , making it smaller and more accessible is part of the solution ."
Godfrey also points to Rolls-Royce ’ s core products , and the advances it is making in the electrification of flight .
The reality is , for moving large numbers of passengers on long-haul flights we are still going to rely on gas turbine engines for decades to come , but as they become more efficient and more Sustainable Aviation Fuel is introduced into operations , the impact on the environment will be reduced . However , for smaller numbers of people , for shorter distances , the electrification of flight , whilst catching up with the electrification of other modes of transport , is very exciting . For example ,
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152 April 2022