Britain’s green rich list

There’s gold in those wind turbines. We highlight the top eco-tycoons, as rated by the compiler of our Rich List

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From New Age traveller to wind-power tycoon: Dale Vince is worth £85m to not show enlarge option -->

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The Copenhagen summit may have put the damper on global plans to tackle climate change — but British entrepreneurs are charging ahead regardless.
Research by Philip Beresford, author of The Sunday Times Rich List, has unveiled 20 British business people who have already made millions from going green. They range from Dale Vince, the New Age traveller turned wind-power tycoon, to the Cottingham family, which has quietly built up a fortune from insulating houses and installing energy-efficient heating. In drawing up the list, we have excluded businessmen like Sir Richard Branson, who have added environmental interests to their businesses.
Compared with other European countries, in particular Germany and Spain, Britain has been sparing with its subsidies for renewable energy and slow to push through big infrastructure projects in the face of local opposition.
All that might be about to change. After the fudge at Copenhagen, where world leaders failed to adopt firm targets to cut carbon-dioxide emissions, Britain is one of the few developed countries with a legally binding target on greenhouse gas emissions. The Climate Change Act 2008 says the UK must cut carbondioxide output 34% by 2020, a goal that should generate even more opportunities for our green millionaires.
1: DALE VINCE Ecotricity £85m
Dale Vince was a grammar school pupil in Great Yarmouth but realised he did not want a conventional career. He got his first taste of the hippie way of life at music festivals: “I’d seen people living in old buses and knew there was an alternative.”
So at 19 Vince decided to become a New Age traveller. His first home was an old ambulance. Eventually, he was living in a truck that he had converted into a home and he had an entire alternative lifestyle.
“I had a little wind turbine to charge old batteries and even run a laptop computer ,” he said. Vince wanted more than to lead a lowimpact lifestyle, though, so he drove to Cornwall to see Britain’s first wind farm. It gave him the dream of building a wind turbine on the hill where he lived in Gloucestershire.
It took five years of challenges and appeals before he managed to get planning permission. The next hurdle Vince faced was selling the power. The energy sector had not been deregulated and the price he was offered to supply the national grid was lower than he wanted. Undaunted, he came up with a bold solution. “The only way to make the venture work was to cut out the middleman and reach end-users directly. At that time the electricity industry was just liberalising and it was possible to get a supplier licence.”
The company he created, Ecotricity, has grown rapidly and now incorporates a wind-development arm, which deals with the turbines, and a retail arm, which delivers the energy to customers. In 2007 alone Ecotricity invested £25m in wind energy. In 2007-8 it made a £1.9m profit on £28m sales. It has £37.8m net assets and has been valued at more than £100m. Cautiously, in this difficult climate, we value Vince, 48, at £85m.
2: ANDREW OWENS and ALEX LEWIS Greenergy £50m
Andrew Owens formerly an oil trader, invested £300,000 in 1992 to set up Greenergy to supply what was, at the time, a new concept: low-sulphur petrol. As the oil giants muscled in on his niche, the Welshman, who had worked for Esso and Petrotrade, decided the company needed to focus on carbon itself.
Greenergy now makes car fuel from oilseed rape. By buying oil from the Continent, South America, Russia and Africa and mixing low–carbon versions for supermarket pumps, it has grown with its customers, the largest of which is Tesco. In 2007-8, Greenergy made £21.1m profit on £1.7 billion sales.
Owens, 47, and his wife Alex Lewis, 46, a former lobbyist who is the company’s communications chief, have a 33.1% stake worth perhaps £50m.
3: LEE COTTINGHAM and FAMILY Mark Group £45m
The Leicester-based Mark Group began insulating homes in 1974 and recognised that for most householders this is the first step to saving energy, money and carbon emissions. Now it helps to make more than 3,000 homes more energy efficient every week.
In 2005 the co-founder, John Cottingham, handed control to his son Lee, now 34, after more than three decades in charge. Since then, nationwide expansion has grown the business from 4 depots to 14. Customers range from homeowners to local councils and utility companies.
In 2008-9, profits hit a record £8.8m on sales of £97.6m. Mark Group should easily be worth £45m. The Cottingham family owns it all.
4: ROY MacGREGOR and FAMILY Global Energy Group £45m
Global Energy Group makes, repairs and inspects infrastructure for clients such as British Gas and Trans-ocean. The company, based in Inverness and Aberdeen, has projects ranging from refurbishing equipment on oil rigs to assembling turbines for a wind farm in Scotland.
Roy MacGregor, the chairman, started out in his family’s supermarket operation. That was sold in 1985, when the family had already branched out into recruitment, property and supplying food and other products to oil platforms in the Cromarty Firth. The supply work became the basis of MacGregor Energy Services, which he launched in 1986. It was sold to 3i, the venture capitalist, in 1997 for about £20m.
MacGregor became involved in football as chairman of local club Ross County. In 2005 he started up in business again, founding Global Energy, and has grown it by acquisition. In 2007-8 it made £5.8m profit on £94.3m sales. He stepped down as chairman of Ross County in April but continues as life president.
5=: IAIN DORRITY PV Crystalox Solar £38m
PV Crystalox Solar, which makes silicon wafers for solar roof panels, joined the main stock market in 2007. It is now one of the biggest listed green companies, though the recent stock-market turmoil hit its shares and it is now worth £331m, against £640m in January 2008.
The Oxfordshire business was set up in 1982 and now has about 250 staff. The solar power market is growing at a rate of 30%-35% a year.
About 75% of the production goes to Japan, while the rest is sent to Germany where it is processed into wafers for the European market. Iain Dorrity, 57, the chief executive, joined Crystalox in 1986 and was a member of the management buyout team that acquired the business in 1994. He sold £20m of shares in the float and today has a stake worth £25.8m. After tax, Dorrity should be worth £38m.
5=: BARRY GARRARD PV Crystalox Solar £38m
Barry Garrard, technical director at the company, has a stake worth £24.5m. He sold £27m of shares at the float and afterwards.
7: GRAHAM YOUNG PV Crystalox Solar £30m
Graham Young, a shareholder in the solar power group, has an £8.8m stake. He sold shares worth about £8.7m at the float. With other assets, Young should be worth about £12m after tax.
8: STUART OLDHAM PV Crystalox Solar £22m
Like Graham Young, a shareholder in PV Crystalox Solar, Stuart Oldham has a £15.6m stake. At the float he sold shares worth £13m. His fortune totals about £22m.
9=: JIM CLARKE and FAMILY Clarke Energy £21m
Liverpool-based Clarke Energy is a market leader in decentralised power generation, combined heat and power, green energy and waste treatment. It was formed by Jim Clarke in 1989 from a diesel-engine and spares business. The company’s power-generation projects are in applications such as natural gas, landfill gas, biogas from sewage works, waste methane from mines, coal-seam methane extracted from unmined coal and “syngas” produced by the gasification of biomass and waste. The international business is growing fast and in 2008 made £2.6m profit on £150m sales. It is 50.8% owned by Clarke, 58, the chairman and managing director, and his family. We value the company at £40m.
9=: NEIL ECKERT Climate Exchange £21m
A former insurance executive in the City, Neil Eckert gave up his job in 2005 to dedicate his life to protecting the planet. His good intentions did not come at any great financial cost, however. Rather, they have turned him into a millionaire.
Eckert, 47, became one of the new breed of green entrepreneurs via Climate Exchange, which he co-founded in London. It dominates the market in carbon emissions trading, part of the green gold rush that was created by the Kyoto climate change treaty. Eckert, the chief executive, has a stake worth more than £8.4m.
He also has a £1.8m stake in Trading Emissions, a quoted company in the same field. We add £11m for Eckert family stakes we can see in other companies such as Northward Properties and Whetsone Properties. In all, Eckert should be worth £21m.
11: ROD and DIANE WOOD Community Windpower £10m
Community Windpower was formed in 2001 to work with local communities to build wind farms. The aim is to provide economic, educational and environmental benefits to local schools and whole communities.
The company’s first wind farm, at Dalry, North Ayrshire, was commissioned in 2006 and has generated enough power for more than 12,000 homes in its first year of operation. The second wind farm, near Dunbar, East Lothian, was given planning consent in 2007 and is now generating 48MW of electricity.
In 2008, Community Windpower made an £858,000 profit but its Dairy Community Wind Company subsidiary made a £2.5m profit on £4.5m sales in the same period.
The Cheshire-based business is owned and run by Rod and Diane Wood, 46 and 44, respectively. The company should be worth £8.5m on these figures. We add £1.5m for farming companies owned by the family.
12: ALEXANDER McKINNON and FAMILY McKinnon & Clarke £8m
Sandy McKinnon, a former military intelligence analyst, co-founded the energy consultancy McKinnon & Clarke in 1976 from a small office. The company, headquartered in Dunfermline, has grown into a key player in carbon trading and other areas of renewable energy.
It has expanded into a range of overseas markets and has offices in 17 countries. In the year to June 2008, profits rose from £1.3m to £1.7m. Simon Northrop, the managing director, said in April: “Sales are going like a train. We have never before experienced such demand for our services.”
There have been reports that McKinnon, 66, wants to sell his family’s 55% controlling stake in a deal that would value the company at about £15m. That seems a fair price and the McKinnon family stake would be worth more than £8m.
13=: SIMON ARMES-REARDON Entec £7m
Entec was formed by Northumberland Water in 1989 as an environmental and engineering consultancy after privatisation of the water industry. It was spun out of Northumbrian Water in 2005 and sold to its management team for £30m. Entec is now a stand-alone company heavily involved in energy, including wind-farm development onshore and offshore. The management buyout was led by Simon Armes-Reardon, 54, the managing director, Douglas Morton, commercial director, and Barry Canfield, finance director. All three are still performing the same roles.
In 2008-9 the Newcastle company made £6m profit on £63.5m sales. The downturn has hit sales, which are not expected to recover until mid-2010. We value the company at £30m, which makes Armes-Reardon’s stake worth almost £7m.
13=: DREW JOHNSON Eaga £7m
Eaga was established in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1990 to administer the Home Energy Efficiency Scheme, which provides government grants for heating and insulation improvements for low-income households. Drew Johnson joined the business a year later, having previously worked at British Coal. He joined the board in 1999 and 10 years later took over as chief executive.
The company became a partnership owned by the employees in 2000. Each year it insulates a quarter of a million homes and fits more than 50,000 energy-efficient central-heating systems across the country. Eaga floated on the stock market in 2007, valued at £453m. Johnson, 50, has a stake worth more than £7m.
13=: DAVID ROUTLEDGE Eaga £7m
David Routledge, 51, is organisational development director at Eaga, the heating and renewable-energy supplier. He joined the company in 2002 after running his own consultancy. His stake is worth more than £7m.
16=: EUAN CAMERON Wind Prospect Group £6m
Euan Cameron is managing director of Wind Prospect, the Bristol company he co-founded in 1997. It reckons to be one of the most successful independent renewable-energy developers in the world, with operations in countries including Ireland, Canada, France, China and Australia.
In 2008 Wind Power made a healthy £1.4m profit on £14.3m sales. It has a strong balance sheet and should be worth £15m. Cameron, 57, has a stake worth about £6m.
16=: ERIC LUMLEY and FAMILY Viscount Environmental £6m
Yorkshire-based Viscount Environmental was formed in 1992. Its core business is providing insulation for residential buildings, and its activities stretch across the energy-saving spectrum, from draught-proofing to central heating installation. In 2007-8, it made £1.3m, and should be worth about £6m. It is largely owned by Eric Lumley, 64, and his family.
18: IAN MCLEOD Eaga £6m
Ian McLeod, 41, finance director of the Newcastle upon Tyne heating and renewable-energy supplier, has a stake worth almost £6m. He spent 14 years with Price Waterhouse Coopers, the accountancy firm.
19: COLIN PALMER Wind Prospect Group £4m
An engineer by training, Colin Palmer is a director of Wind Prospect, the Bristol renewable-energy group that he co-founded in 1997. He is now a non-executive director. Palmer, 61, holds a stake worth about £4m.
20: JEREMY LEGGETT Solar Century Holdings £3m
Jeremy Leggett chairs Solar Century Holdings, a London solar energy supplier he founded in 1998. It designs innovative products for buildings, working with architects and builders. Leggett, 55, has been called “the UK’s most respected green energy boss” and was a member of the government’s Renewables Advisory Board from 2002 to 2006. He has 30.7% of ordinary shares in Solar Century, which is worth £13m. His stake and work in the first private-equity fund for renewable energy take him to £3m.