My time with the Bevan Foundation 

Zacharias Lloyd, undergraduate student at Cardiff University, reflects on his work experience placement with the Bevan Foundation.

I am originally from Blaenau Gwent, an area severely damaged by the decline of heavy industry in Wales. Therefore, when I joined Cardiff University as a Politics student, I was keen to delve into the complexities of the economic, climate, technological, and policy issues shaping Wales. More specifically, I want the work I produce to contribute to avoiding the intergenerational effects of unjust industry transitions, such as the closure of coal mines and steel works in the South Wales Valleys. 

With the green energy revolution underway, one of my main focuses at university has been the just transition and how to achieve it. So, I reached out to the Bevan Foundation, who enabled me to spend some time on work experience with them. As a university student, one of my most significant concerns is my employability, so the chance to apply my skills with a charity that produces such meaningful work has been a pleasure. 

During my time here, I have been able to deploy some of the skills I have been developing at university, namely my research, report writing, and data entry and analysis skills. The project I was assigned required me to research companies operating in Wales’s green/renewable energy sector. The assignment’s goal was to determine which companies are “Real Living Wage” accredited and, from these findings, explore the potential of “green jobs” to tackle poverty. 

My findings

I started my research by discovering the difference between the national living wage and the Real Living Wage. As of April 2024, there is nearly a one-pound-an-hour difference between the national living wage and the Real Living Wage, a huge difference over a course of a year.  

The second part of the assignment required me to collect data from the Real Living Wage website to find which companies are accredited by Real Living Wage in Wales’ green sector. My preliminary findings were that most companies were small-medium-sized enterprises, primarily working in the construction or consultancy sectors. After collecting this data, I expanded my search to determine which significant companies were developing renewable infrastructure in Wales. From this research, I determined that most companies constructing Wales’s largest renewable energy sites are not Real Living Wage accredited. 

Discovering that the largest energy companies are not Real Living Wage accredited has damaged my perception that the green revolution will revitalise the areas in Wales that were most damaged by the decline in heavy industry. The green energy sector is set to grow exponentially in Wales. The Welsh Government aims to increase renewable energy production in Wales to cover 100% of Welsh Energy Consumption by 2035. For the effects of this growth to be felt equitably, it is essential that the workers in the renewable energy sector are compensated fairly with wages that at least cover an acceptable standard of living. The evidence suggests that this may currently not be the case; however, one limitation of the research is that a company may not be Real Living Wage Accredited but could pay a wage equal to or greater than the Real Living Wage. 

A green, fair future for Wales? 

Exponential growth in the renewable energy sector in Wales is inevitable. The response to the climate emergency must be swift, but it must also be fair. A part of the just transition must ensure that workers are compensated fairly for their labour, and paying the Real Living Wage is one step companies can take to ensure that they distribute the profit they generate equitably. However, this is only one step; companies investing in Wales must take further actions, such as establishing a community fund and enabling community ownership to secure a green, fair future for Wales.