COVID-19 has shown how fragile our reliance on manual labour for operation and maintenance of industrial assets and infrastructure can be. As organisations recover from COVID-19 and look to improve resilience by automating more aspects of their operation, it's critical that the automation solutions they employ have a positive environmental impact. Across a host of different sectors, from water treatment to oil & gas, valves are used to regulate the flow of fluids in pipes, surprisingly, around 60% of valves are still manually operated. Although automated valves are an established technology, current solutions have three major issues that make them unsustainable for use in a net-zero world: 1. **High emissions:** The stems that connect actuators to valves are inherently susceptible to leaking, if the pipeline is carrying powerful greenhouse gases like natural gas (methane) then this is a major problem. These leaks contribute to fugitive emissions, it is thought such emissions from a range of sources could be equivalent to 5% of total global GHG emissions. Leaking valves are responsible for 60% of all fugitive GHG emissions from industrial processes. 2. **Poor flow efficiency:** Many valves, even when open, restrict the flow of fluid within them, adding greatly to the pumping requirements in water and waste treatment networks. It is reported that in the US alone, 30TWh of energy, equivalent to the entire electricity usage of Scotland, could be saved through the use of valves with more efficient flow paths. 3. **Poor operational efficiency:** On account of the high torque and speed demands, 60% of automated valves are forced to employ pneumatic or hydraulic actuators with just a quarter the operating efficiency of modern electric actuators. Actuation Lab has developed a design for an entirely new form of automated valve that addresses these deficiencies. Called the SL valve, it is designed to provide zero-resistance, full flow operation when open and exceptionally low operating torque requirements, enabling efficient electric motor driven actuation and stem-less torque transmission. A flow control solution for a net-zero future.