At the start of 2021 Northern Gas Networks established our Young Innovators Council (YIC) to bring a wider range of voices and perspectives into our decision making and for the YIC to be the voice of young people at Northern Gas Networks.
The aim is to provide young people’s perspectives and help ensure young people’s thoughts and opinions are put at the heart of our decision making through meaningful and relevant engagement with our future customers.
The Young Innovators Council have held five sessions during 2021 and discussed a broad range of topics from education and skills, through to hydrogen, CO safety and sustainability. The input from the council this year has provided a real opportunity for our future customers to influence our decision-making.
100%
of panel members felt their ideas were listened to
3
new strategies developed
Does the Young Innovators Council give real value?
“Northern Gas Networks gave us young people a voice and a chance to start changing and mitigating towards our planet and it was honestly an amazing and extremely proud moment.”
Does the Young Innovators Council give real value to the young people taking part?
How has the YIC helped inform Northern Gas Networks’ decision making this year?
“The number of fresh ideas was definitely a big benefit. There was so much creativity in the sessions, it gave us a large number of ideas to work with that we had never thought of before.”
“My expectations were to have a session with a well engaged and challenging group of young people – for me that is exactly what happened.”
What value has the YIC brought to Northern Gas Networks this year?
“I didn’t expect the Council members to be as well informed about Northern Gas Networks and our operations as they were. This often led to some pretty difficult questions, sometimes of a technical nature. All of which is a good thing.”