Clashing with Covid
During the height of the global Covid-19 pandemic Mr Katz was able to focus on Glass Futures’ rapid progression using remote networking tools such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. At the same time, he was also carrying out his (socially distanced) tenure as Master of the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers of London – the culmination of a four-decades-plus association with the livery company.
“My father was a member of the Glass Sellers Livery an ancient City of London Guild founded in 1664, and he recommended I put myself forward for admission in 1981,” explains Mr Katz. “I joined at the bottom of the ladder and as far as I was concerned, it was a further introduction to the glass industry because members included significant players from glass manufacturing companies. For many years I didn’t have time to get involved in the administration of the Livery but eventually I was invited to join the Finance and General Purposes Committee and, as finance was one of my specialities, was able to contribute to the Governance of the Livery."
"“About 10 years ago there was a review of the overall aims and aspirations of the Livery resulting in a new committee, the Glass Committee, being formed to reach out to the industry and encourage more involvement. I chaired that committee for a number of years and, during that time, I engaged with many members in the glass industry, including Glass Worldwide’s Dave Fordham, and we introduced several like-minded individuals to the Livery. I also encouraged Glass Sellers to become a founder member of Glass Futures.”
After chairing the Glass Committee, Mr Katz served as Renter Warden and Prime Warden and became Master for 2019–20. “My period as Master clashed with the pandemic and the lockdown restricted me fully representing the company as a Master usually would,” Mr Katz rues. “Even so, it was still a great honour to have been Master of the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers of London even if it didn’t turn out the way it was planned because of Covid.”
He is more cheerful extolling the opportunities the Company brings: “to meet glass industry contemporaries in a social environment involving City funding institutions; to get closer to the City of London and its establishment; to actively support glass as a medium, not looking at it from a single company point of view but from across the glass industry per se, including all sectors – i.e., container, float, fibre, electronics, telecommunications and art which Glass Sellers brings together.
“It’s a meeting environment to support glass in all its applications and for the industry to support each other; and fundamentally, the Glass Sellers Charity which reaches out to primary and secondary education across the UK with bursaries to encourage interest in STEM subjects, particularly glass,” he concludes.
Manifesting a dream
Happily, there were no coronavirus issues when Glass Futures officially opened its Innovation Centre on 6 June (see page 18) and Mr Katz was able to celebrate the full realisation of his vision for an industry initiative that will help to ensure a prosperous future for glass.
“Right from the start of Glass Futures, the dream of the Innovation Centre was at the core of the concept, so the opening of the centre was a very special feeling,” he confides.
The Global Centre of Excellence for Glass in R&D, Innovation and Training provides members, academic researchers, supply chain companies and industry leaders with the means to conduct private trials and co-government-funded R&D projects targeting new methods of commercial glass manufacture, elimination of carbon to net zero – or better. Companies with common challenges can work together on solutions and individual members can carry out private research by renting the facility for their own specific trials.
The Innovation Centre’s unique 30tpd pilot furnace “will not have the usual furnace lifespan and is designed to be rebuilt, probably more than once, in the wake of our learnings,” says Mr Katz. “And we don’t mind the furnace going wrong because that’s where learning comes into play! This will be a two-way trade across the industry and it’s a terrific opportunity for the industry to learn. Our pilot furnace and state-of the art IS machine will be wonderful hands-on training tools.”
Glass Futures raised £50m for the Innovation Centre from funding partners St Helens Borough Council, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Innovate UK (part of UK Research & Innovation) and the UK’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
“The Industry also contributed substantially in kind, cash and close technical involvement to a value circa £20 million,” adds Mr Katz. “The centre is now there for the industry to benefit from. It’s effectively a gift from the British Government for the glass industry to experiment and learn how best to achieve net zero in their current and future manufacturing processes. Over the course of the rest of this year, fit out with purpose designed unique glass melting facilities will continue and should be ready for glass-out early in 2024. In the interim, alternative sustainable fuel trials will continue in Glass Futures’ Rotherham UK facility on their substantial and sophisticated Combustion Test Bed. Trials there utilise low carbon fuels including hydrogen, liquid and gaseous biofuels, electricity with variable hybrid fuel combinations to establish how such combinations perform. In due course, the Test Bed facility will be moved to St Helens.”
Members’ club
Today, Glass Futures’ global membership encompasses “an amazing collection of glass manufacturers, their customers and the supply chain – membership is growing continuously,” enthuses Mr Katz. [For more information on Glass Futures membership, see Glass Worldwide’s interview with Naomi Smith, Global Membership Manager in our March/April issue.]
“Having secured £50 million in Capital grants, Glass Futures is providing its expertise to support member companies to secure grant assistance for their new processes,” Mr Katz points out. “Glass Futures has very close relationships with Government at a whole host of levels linking to topics such as decarbonisation, Industry 4.0, and helping to maximise glass recycling. We’re also closely involved with Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) working on a whole series of projects running in parallel.” Naturally, Glass Futures also works closely with British Glass and their subsidiary, Glass Technology Services.
Currently, plans are being developed to launch Glass Futures outreach offices in other parts of the world, initially the Americas and India, according to Mr Katz.
“Glass Futures’ biggest strength is knowledge and our job is to make that knowledge available, firstly to members and secondly to the glass industry across the board,” he states.
“I have immense pride in what Glass Futures and its team have achieved so quickly and the opening of the Innovation Centre is a massive development for the global glass industry. I am very proud and honoured to be the Chief Executive of a unique organisation with no comparable entity in the world – Glass Futures is absolutely out there on its own.”
Images: The Glass Futures Innovation Centre and (inset) Richard Katz (right) with Juergen Maier CBE, advisor to the Glass Futures board + Richard Katz with fellow Liverymen of the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers of London Dave Dalton, Maria Chanmugam (current Master) and Dave Fordham.