Expert Opinion: Achieving your sustainability goals

Providing their Expert Opinion, Stockport based Hallidays focus on some ideas to help you to achieve your sustainability goals and reduce your carbon footprint.

Many businesses now have goals to improve their sustainability and reduce their environmental impact. Investing in sustainability needn’t be expensive or time consuming for your business or organisation.

Energy Efficiency Grant – go green and cut your bills – apply now!

The Business Growth Hub is now delivering a 50-50 Energy Efficiency Grant for a limited time on a first-come first-served basis. It helps businesses boost their profitability, reduce operating costs and save money. Eligible companies must be a Greater Manchester SME with less than 250 employees and less than €50m turnover. Ideal projects are around £2,000-£2,500 for the equipment costs only and the grant would retrospectively fund 50%. 

They also have a team of Resource Efficiency Advisors who can visit your site and identify opportunities for environmental improvements and cost savings. This has proven most significant for manufacturing and engineering companies where savings can be made throughout the production line to energy, materials, water, waste and other resources.

To contact the Business Growth Hub and receive support with your application please visit Business Growth Hub

Tax relief to buy energy efficient products

Check whether you can claim immediate 100% tax relief (via accelerated capital allowances, current deadline 31st March 2020) by buying government approved energy saving technology. The Energy Technology Product List – ETPL – is a government-managed list of energy-efficient plant and machinery, such as boilers, electric motors, and air conditioning and refrigeration systems that qualify for full tax relief.

Ways to reduce your energy consumption

• Develop an energy policy and use it throughout your business. Small changes like turning off lights, photocopiers and computer screens can reduce costs by up to 10%
• If you have high energy consumption, you could invest in an audit to ensure you are operating at the highest level of efficiency and understand where savings can be made

Make a Green Growth Pledge

If you’re based within Greater Manchester, why not make ‘A Green Growth Pledge’? It is a message to your customers and the wider business community that you are taking action to become a clean and green company. Not only will you reduce costs and increase your resilience, you will also be leading the way for others to follow.

If you tender for services, having an environmental pledge for your business can help you to stand out from your competitors.

Volunteering to support your local community

If members of your team enjoy running, the GoodGym meet weekly to run to help local community projects (e.g. a foodbank or gardening project) and help older people remain independent in their own home (e.g. social calls and helping with practical one-off tasks). It’s a perfect way to combine getting fit and helping your local community.

Find other volunteering opportunities in your local area by visiting the UK’s national volunteering database Do-it.org There’s over 1 million opportunities to choose from!

The Goodness Collective – Stockport

For businesses within Stockport, there are exciting plans afoot for The Goodness Collective CIC to help connect businesses to their local community for mutual benefits. With a website in the pipeline, you can follow their developments on Twitter@Goodness CIC or contact thegoodnesscollective@outlook.com with any enquiries.