Over £3m to help place the region on the world stage for sustainable innovation

Funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) (£1.5m) and the Northwest European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (£1.7m) the Northwest Eco-innovation Programme will help hundreds of businesses exploit new market opportunities for more environmentally sound products and services.

The three-year support programme was designed by Lancaster University and will be delivered in partnership with C-Tech Innovation Ltd. It is the first of its kind in the UK and is delivered under the ‘Improving your Resource Efficiency’ product, part of the Government’s Solutions for Business portfolio.

It will provide one-to-one assistance to 480 Small and Medium Sized Enterprises resulting in 240 new environmental products and saving 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. In addition the programme aims to create 107 jobs and safeguard 373.

Eco-innovation will help SMEs to bring about improvements in products, processes or systems which benefit both the environment and company growth. The project will go beyond the ‘greening’ of existing businesses by aiming to ensure that the environmental impact of products during manufacturing, use and disposal is designed-out as far as possible.  It sets out to support businesses looking to seize the opportunities that have arisen from the need to address the challenges of climate change.

The project seeks to support innovation in a wide range of sectors from aerospace and biomedicine to digital/creative and food and drink. Businesses will be given access to a wide range of specialist support including Research and Development expertise provided by Lancaster University’s Environment Centre and Lancaster Product Development Unit.

To keep updated on the range of support being offered by the NWDA go to www.nwda.co.uk/supportingbusiness or for more information on business support visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/northwest

For more information on business support or on the Northwest Eco-innovation Programme contact Business Link Northwest or visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/northwest

Foundation, a climate fund for the Northwest gathers up donations from businesses and uses these funds to support community based carbon reduction projects within the five sub regions of the Northwest. These projects have economic and social benefits that would otherwise be overlooked.

Alongside the environmental benefits, Foundation is actively supporting families struggling to pay their fuel bills, investing in green collar jobs and developing a low carbon economy.

“Foundation” offers a compensation mechanism for companies that want to compensate for residual / unavoidable carbon emissions, we do not offer traditional “offsets”.  These emissions can be created from energy consumption, buildings, commercial fleets, business travel, manufacturing, shipping and transport.

We’re the first to run this mechanism in the UK. A “compensation” system is a fluid model and acts either on a contributory level (based on elements of your business actions) or alternatively as a fixed way (fully compensate based on your carbon footprint).

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