Small steps towards building a sustainable business

Last week, the Greener Gloucestershire team from the University of Gloucestershire Student’s Union, brought local businesses together at the Forest Green Rovers Football Club in Nailsworth to demonstrate how they could adopt measures to be more sustainable, whilst maximising profitability.

Last week, the Greener Gloucestershire team from the University of Gloucestershire Student’s Union, brought local businesses together at the Forest Green Rovers Football Club in Nailsworth to demonstrate how they could adopt measures to be more sustainable, whilst maximising profitability.

Paul Thomas, Environmental Project Manager at SuperGroup pictured above presenting

Attracting businesses from across the county, the event included a line-up of speakers from local organisations to share their experience and knowledge of sustainability issues. These included: SuperGroup, Commerical Group, Ecotricity, Endsleigh Insurance Services Limited and the National Union of Students.  From the event, delegates were able to gain some valuable ideas and insights to help increase staff awareness and engagement with sustainability and to use resources efficiently and responsibly. Ideas included a number of approaches from encouraging staff to eat local food, car share or take part in a cycle to work scheme, to larger methods such as researching an organisation’s supply chain to see where environmental savings could be made.

Boasting its own green credentials, Forest Green Rovers FC is the first football club to have launched Britain’s first meat-free and environmentally sustainable menu for all its clients, in addition to their organic pitch, solar panels and fleet of electric cars.

The event was part of a wider Government funded scheme called ‘Green Impact’ to bring students, businesses and local communities to work together in innovative ways to drive economic growth in a green and sustainable way. Green Impact provides a framework that businesses can sign-up to in order to take advantage of support and resources to help identify and implement sustainable actions and create a culture of sustainability through the workplace. Many organisations around the UK are already involved in Green Impact, and Endsleigh let the way in Gloucestershire, taking part in Green Impact in 2013.

Daniel O’Toole, Customer Proposition Manager at Endsleigh said: “"Endsleigh has learnt a lot from the Green Impact journey. It has enabled us to reduce our environmental impacts, improved our working efficiencies and cost savings, but above all, it has led to a more joined-up-approach across the business that was certainly missing in many areas. With this, we are now able share better ideas and implement them across Endsleigh faster.”

Rachel Purdon, Greener Gloucestershire Coordinator at the University of Gloucestershire Students’ Union said: “This is a really exciting project that champions practical and innovative ways to drive sustainable economic growth in Gloucestershire.  This project not only brings sustainability and environmental issues into the minds of the business community, it repositions the role of students as active partners to effect change in the local community and forge closer links with local businesses.”

David Owen, Chief Executive, GFirst LEP added: “Our Strategic Economic Plan has a strategic aim to decarbonise Gloucestershire by encouraging businesses to harness energy efficiency and renewable energy.  I’m delighted that Green Impact is already making a difference in Gloucestershire, with many organisations signing up to see how they can implement ways to become more sustainable and use resources in an efficient and responsible way to minimise the effect on the environment.”

If your company would like to get involved in the Green Impact scheme, just visit www.greenergloucestershire.co.uk/greenimpact/ for more details, or contact greener@glos.ac.uk.