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Grow Greener Programme

Save money, save the planet

For many businesses, 2020 brought new challenges, and adaptability and flexibility were key to overcoming them. In 2021, business will need to continue to tackle new issues, including that of climate change; but you don’t have to do it alone.

The new Grow Greener Programme, run by York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership, aims to help businesses reduce their impact on the environment. Whether you want to lower your carbon footprint or explore new packaging methods, you’ll work with our specialist consultants, Oakdene Hollins, to assess your current way of working, and find new opportunities.

Going green can also be great for business, helping you reduce your costs, lower your energy consumption, and become more resilient and better-equipped for the future!

Your business should be:

  • Trading directly to consumers (e.g. retail, leisure, hospitality or services such as hairdressers) OR involved in forestry, fisheries or agriculture

  • This programme is designed for SMEs, so businesses must have under 250 employees and a turnover of under £40m

Background and Context

Circular market towns promote efficiency, resilience, and sustainability among local businesses. Through communication, collaboration, and an aligned vision to shift towards a more circular economy (CE), SMEs within the areas of York and North Yorkshire (Y&NY) can identify opportunities to increase revenue and productivity, while simultaneously decreasing energy use, waste, and carbon emissions.

There are 6 major benefits that CE solutions provide local businesses.

These include:
1.       Energy savings
2.       Waste cost reductions
3.       Efficiency and productivity increase
4.       Brand recognition as standout and sustainable
5.       Product purpose, customer trust
6.       Business resilience

This project is aimed at supporting SMEs who are keen to engage with the circular economy strategy to provide much-needed resilience especially following the Covid-19 crisis. This will include opportunities to collaborate, connect with like-minded SMEs, generate revenue and cut costs.

The Y&NY LEP will work with Oakdene Hollins to deliver a series of interactive webinar workshops to support the SMEs and help them tap into the benefits of the CE.  The workshops will be organized around four key areas of a circular market town. These include:

1.       Keeping it local

2.       Creating value from longer use products  

3.       Making your resources go further

4.       Being more energy efficient  

There will be an initial workshop introducing the CE. This will include a high-level overview of key CE principles as well as some best practice case studies and their application to different areas of business.

This will be followed by a second round of workshops. These will involve a deep-dive into the CE area most relevant to your business, with the aim of adding value through CE activities, finding opportunities to generate additional revenue, cut costs, and collaborate with local business, and improving economic resilience post-Covid-19.

What’s in it for you?

By attending these workshops, you will obtain:

  • An in-depth understanding of how to apply CE solutions to your specific business challenges and unlock the business benefits

  • A CE toolkit, including a self-evaluation checklist, an action plan specific to your business and current level of CE activity, and a carbon footprinting self-assessment tool to track your reducing emissions

  • Valuable connections to other SMEs and opportunities to collaborate