Decarbonising the Home

Decarbonising the Home with Shell Energy

Find out which Shell Eco-marathon teams won the Pitch the Future challenges with their innovative ideas and watch the virtual awards ceremony.

Meet the winners and watch the awards

When Colin Furze met Colin Crooks

Title: SHELL SEM PARTNER IV 3 OFFLLINE V4

Duration: 3:39 minutes

Description:

Interview with Colin Crooks, CEO of Shell Energy Retail, Limited, discussing the Pitch the Future mini-challenge on de-carbonizing the home.

[Background music plays]

Bright, uplifting instrumental music

[Animated sequence]

Shell logo on a blue-green background. A stylised car on a yellow track arches above the logo.

[Text displays]

Pitch the Future. #MakeTheFuture #ShellEcoMarathon

[Animated sequence]

Stylised cars on a yellow and blue track appear in the upper left and lower right of the screen, giving the impression that the track is surrounding the screen.

[Text displays]

When Colin met Colin Crooks. Shell Energy, decarbonize the home.

[Video footage]

Split screen showing Colin Furze on the left and Colin Crooks on the right. The stylised cars on the track remain in the background throughout the video.

[Text displays]

Colin Furze, YouTuber and Inventor. Colin Crooks, CEO at Shell Energy Retail, Limited.

Colin Furze

Hello, Colin. Thanks for joining me. It's actually really good for me to introduce another Colin, because as you'll probably know, there is not many Colins in the world.

Colin Crooks

There aren't, are there, Colin?

[Video footage]

Closeup of Colin Crooks.

Colin Crooks

Me, particularly, growing up in Canada, I hardly ever met one. Great to meet you.

[Video footage]

Close up of Colin Furze.

Colin Furze

Excellent. If you want to just tell people what you do, what's your job at Shell, that would be great.

[Video footage]

Split screen showing Colin Furze on the left and Colin Crooks on the right.

Colin Crooks

Sure. I'm the CEO of Shell Energy Retail, our home energy business in the UK.

Colin Furze

Excellent. Of course, one of the Pitch the Future mini-challenges is all about decarbonising the home. This is one of those things that most people overlook. We never think of our houses as being CO2 emission hotspots, but it is actually quite a big emitter, isn't it?

[Video footage]

Closeup of Colin Crooks.

Colin Crooks

It's actually 40% of all the emissions in the UK, all the emissions are household related.

[Video footage]

Split screen showing Colin Furze on the left and Colin Crooks on the right.

Colin Crooks

Of that, the heat is the biggest part. Decarbonizing the heat is really key.

[Video footage]

Closeup of Colin Crooks.

Colin Crooks

I think there's no single solution. You've got to take a range of things to solve this.

[Video footage]

Split screen showing Colin Furze on the left and Colin Crooks on the right.

Colin Crooks

I think one thing is really important. We can't just ask people to sacrifice their comfort, or their convenience. We also can't ask them to bear a huge additional cost, right, because people are going to have to lead the way through this transition.

[Video footage]

Closeup of Colin Crooks.

Colin Crooks

I think, so here, there's a huge scope for creativity for our students to come up with great ideas.

[Video footage]

Closeup of Colin Furze.

Colin Crooks

The students taking part, what are you hoping to see from them? What's on your wish list of things that they can try and come up with and challenge themselves with?

[Video footage]

Split screen showing Colin Furze on the left and Colin Crooks on the right. Colin Furze is replaced with two insets. The top one shows a man and a boy looking at a laptop. The bottom one show two young women with a model wind turbine.

[Text displays]

Creativity.

Colin Furze

Well, you know, it's the same creativity and enthusiasm that I've seen in my nearly 30 years in Shell, visiting Shell EcoMarathon teams. I just love to see the creativity people pushing the boundaries of engineering to deliver these amazingly fuel-efficient vehicles. Truly mind-blowing.

[Video footage]

Split screen showing Colin Furze on the left and Colin Crooks on the right.

Colin Crooks

Unfortunately, this year, Covid year, we can't bring everybody together to get onto the track, right? But in a way, it actually opens up a new opportunity, something different.

[Video footage]

Closeup of Colin Crooks.

Colin Crooks

Take that ingenuity and thinking to a different set of challenges. So, I'm actually really excited to see what the teams are going to come up with.

[Video footage]

Split screen showing Colin Furze on the left and Colin Crooks on the right.

Colin Crooks

But speaking of creativity, I hear, Colin, that you are going to take on this challenge yourself. What's your plan?

Colin Furze

Well, I kind of thought, the decarbonizing the home one struck a chord with me, and I thought, I'll have a crack at this. So, I've come up with this idea, which most people, when I say it to them, they sort of laugh.

[Video footage]

Closeup of Colin Furze.

Colin Furze

It's a wind-powered tumble dryer, or an ecological tumble dryer.

[Video footage]

Closeup of Colin Crooks reacting, then cut to split screen with Colin Furze on the left and Colin Crooks on the right.

Colin Furze

I do know that we can think of an idea, but then when you actually go to do it, and then you start thinking about it, then you say, ah, this is a bit trickier than what I thought it might be.

Colin Crooks

Well, having seen you deliver a wood-powered lawn mower, I've got great confidence, Colin, that you're going to deliver us an interesting tumble dryer.

[Video footage]

Closeup of Colin Furze, then back to split screen.

Colin Furze

I'll get there. I don't think it's the sort of thing you'll be selling in the high street when I've finished it. You might not want it delivered to your house, but it will work, I promise you that.

[Video footage]

Closeup of Colin Furze.

Colin Furze

So, what is Shell trying to do to move things forward, in terms of consumer energy?

[Video footage]

Split screen with Colin Crooks on the right. On the left is an inset showing video footage as Colin Crooks speaks. Solar panels reflecting the sun and sky. Cut to a shot of electricity pylons against a colourful sunset. The clouds move quickly. Cut to a shot of the regulator on a home radiator.

[Text displays]

100% renewable electricity.

Colin Crooks

Well, to start with, Shell Energy in the UK, we offer 100% renewable electricity as standard, and recently, Colin, we've actually taken that further. Now we offer energy tariffs that make your home's energy, both the electricity and the gas, completely carbon neutral.

[Video footage]

Closeup of Colin Crooks.

Colin Crooks

But I think there's tons of benefits for all of us, if we're moving to a cleaner energy future, with cleaner air and a more fair energy system for everyone.

[Video footage]

Split screen with Colin Furze on the left and Colin Crooks on the right.

Colin Furze

Excellent, Colin. Thanks for your time, great to meet another Colin. You have kept the bar high for Colins.

Colin Crooks

Thanks very much, Colin. I just want to say, really good luck to all of the student teams coming up with these fantastic ideas.

[Audio]

Shell jingle plays.

[Graphic]

Shell logo.

[Text displays]

Overview

Consumers are increasingly keen to control their energy consumption, but new solutions for reducing CO₂ emissions in the home must not impede users’ everyday needs and comforts.

As part of Shell’s commitment to becoming a net-zero energy business by 2050, Shell Energy has been providing residential customers with 100% renewable electricity as well as easy and convenient ways to control their energy consumption and help create a better, cleaner energy future.

Objective

In a creative and visually engaging way, students should develop an innovative concept that helps to decrease carbon dioxide emissions in the home without compromising comfort and convenience.