Why I want to ban the phrase ‘net zero’

Asif Ghafoor does not fit the stereotype of a clean-tech evangelist. He doesn’t own a car, dislikes buzzwords and wants to retire one of the most widely used phrases in sustainability.

“I’ve been trying to ban the word net zero,” he says. “People have been turned off by it.”

Asif is CEO of Be.EV, the largest electric vehicle charging network across Greater Manchester, and co-founder of infrastructure firm Iduna. In episode 37 of The Decarbonisation Dialogue our Salix Podcast, he argues that the real driver of change is not carbon targets, but technology - and the opportunity created when industries collide.

A business studies graduate from the University of Bradford, Asif’s career spans senior roles across infrastructure, investment and housing, including managing director of Amey Investments and non-executive director at Wandle.

One of his earliest lessons came at Midland Bank, where he joined after university.

“My prediction was that Midland Bank would no longer exist on its own and would be subsumed into a much larger international operation,” he recalls. “That’s exactly what happened.”

That instinct to look ahead rather than sideways resurfaced in 2015, when he began to see mobility as a sector on the cusp of profound change.

“For 50 or 60 years, nothing really evolved in how we move from A to B,” he says. “Disruption creates opportunity, and this was a pivotal moment.”

While electric vehicles are often framed through the lens of emissions reduction, Asif believes this misses the bigger picture.

“The opportunity in mobility isn’t necessarily linked to net zero,” he says. “It’s linked to future technology - AI, autonomous vehicles, telecoms - and how all of that changes the way we move.”

He points to the breakdown of traditional industry silos. Car manufacturers, highway authorities, telecoms providers and energy companies once operated independently. Today, those boundaries are dissolving.

“That crossing of boundaries is where the disruption is,” he says. “And that’s where the opportunity is.”

At Be.EV, this thinking has translated into a radical reimagining of charging infrastructure. Asif argues the familiar petrol station model cannot survive in an electric future.

“It’s like asking someone in 1900 where they were going to refuel a motor vehicle - in a barn?” he says. “There was no logic in that, and there’s no logic in today’s model going forward either.”

Instead, Be.EV is building charging into everyday journeys, at places where people naturally stop for coffee, food, shopping or a break.

“You don’t stop to charge,” he says. “You charge while you live your life.”

Be.EV’s flagship Manchester Charging Oasis reflects a wider philosophy: sustainability must be embedded, not assumed.

“When we started, we didn’t say ‘we’re sustainable because we’re EV’,” Asif explains. “We asked, what else can we do?”

From water reuse and drainage to materials, planting and long-term environmental impact, each site is designed around what Asif calls a “business compass”. Community engagement is part of that approach.

“We brought in neighbours, councillors, local residents, even though we weren’t required to,” he says. “That’s how you build something that lasts.”

Be.EV’s roots lie in its partnership with Transport for Greater Manchester, where it upgraded and now manages the region’s public charging network. But Asif says the biggest learning was not technical.

“This stopped being an infrastructure problem very quickly,” he says. “It became a customer behaviour problem.”

Early EV drivers were forgiving. That is no longer the case.

“We’re now in early mass adoption,” he says. “If an app doesn’t work, people don’t forgive it just because it’s new and they shouldn’t.”

His ambition is clear: to make Be.EV the UK’s best charge point operator from a customer perspective.

“The ideal experience is that charging is so seamless it’s unmemorable,” he says. “You remember the coffee, not the charger.”

In a sector built around vehicles, Asif’s personal choices stand out.

“I don’t drive,” he admits. “I cycle, I take the bus and train, and I borrow my mum’s electric car.”

For him, sustainability is about consistency rather than preaching, something reflected in Be.EV’s employee-owned structure and his support for initiatives such as the Bradford Futures Fund, which helps students facing financial hardship.

“If you don’t take a rounded view of society, you end up with shocks,” he says. “Sustainability isn’t just environmental, it’s social too.”

Asif believes the UK is at a rare inflection point.

“There are very few moments where you get to build something that could last 50 or 100 years,” he says. “This is one of them.”

How that opportunity is handled, he argues, will shape not just the future of transport but the trust people place in the transition itself.

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