Pass the rose-tinted glasses please. A utilities conference took a more philosophical route recently when the chief executive of one of the UK’s largest energy suppliers took a stand against modern consumerism.
“We all have too much stuff, it gets in the way of enjoying life,” Ian Marchant, Chief Executive of Scottish & Southern Energy told the Future of Utilities conference in London.
Marchant, standing out from the other executives at the conference by his lack of a necktie and unbuttoned shirt, also took a rather whimsical look back at Britain in the 1970s, when Edison Lighthouse topped the charts and Britain’s homes weren’t stuffed with TVs, DVD players, iPods, games consoles.
He even suggested the sheer amount of possessions most Britons own was preventing them from getting loft insulation and thus making their homes more environmentally friendly and energy efficient.
“The biggest obstacle is the fact people realise they’ll need to spend a weekend emptying out the loft of all their stuff,” he said, emphasising the last few words.
