GREEN HEALTHY CITY - WHAT WE HAVE DONE SO FAR

Carbon Literacy Training

Working with Nottingham Trent University (NTU) we have developed a unique version of Carbon Literacy Training, aimed at businesses in Nottingham. The course supports individuals and businesses to learn how climate change affects them, and arms them with knowledge on how to action sustainable changes that will lower their environmental impact, and as a result, their overheads.

The course has been developed and is led by leading Professor of Sustainable Management and Education for Sustainable Development and Co-Chair UN PRME Working Group on Climate Change & the Environment, Professor Petra Molthan-Hill PhD, MBA, MDiv, PFHEA. It is thought that this Carbon Literacy Training is the first of its kind and we have ambitions to continue to work with NTU, to ensure the training is rolled out nationally.

In 2022, we have delivered the first two cohorts, 37 businesses signed up for the course and 19 completed the 8 hours of training.

Information Sharing from multiple partners

Whilst Nottingham City Council (NCC) take the lead on the information sharing process, Nottingham BID act as conduit.

Weekly, we share information through our member and Independent Nottingham communications from partners on initiatives and opportunities that support a Triple Bottom Line approach to business. These have included, but are not limited to:

Nottingham Trent University (NTU):

• The Sustainability in Enterprise project helps small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Greater Nottingham on the journey to Net Zero.

It helps businesses fully understand their current carbon emissions and identify effective carbon reduction measures. Part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), support available to SMEs includes:

Sustainability consultancy:
- Environmental and carbon consultancy delivered by qualified sustainability consultants in the team.
- Product design consultancy to reduce the carbon impact associated with products or packaging.

Student sustainability consultancy from final year student teams focused on identifying carbon challenges, supervised and supported by Nottingham. Business School (NBS) and the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment (ADBE):
- Sustainability Community Lab (SCL) Free course for early careers to attend from your business
- Six weeks on site workshops with other early career participant’s that take place on a Wednesday afternoon from 1pm until 4.30pm
- At the end of this they will pull together a sustainability business proposal to bring back to the business in support of helping you on your sustainability journey.
- For dates of next cohorts running and to register please click here: Sustainability Community Lab (SCL) Registration Form

Financial support:
- Carbon grant in where businesses can receive up to £9,600 support to implement carbon reduction recommendations with up to 40% of the overall project funded.
- Recruiting talent grant which is a 20% grant towards the salary of a new employee who has graduated within the last three years.

Building sustainability knowledge:
- Carbon Management Programme – a workshop programme to supports managers in understanding and managing carbon emissions. 
- Sustainability Community Lab – workshops to support early career employees in becoming a sustainability advocate. 
- Net Zero Essentials Webinars – webinars aimed at businesses with little or no understanding of net zero, or who are at the early stages of acting on carbon reduction. 

Nottingham City Council:

• Funded by The European Development Fund, Nottingham City Council’s Accelerating Reduction in Carbon (ARC) project supports small and medium sized businesses located in Greater Nottingham to decarbonise and reduce their energy bills through the introduction of energy efficiency measures.
  
  
• To help businesses invest in measures that lead to cost and carbon savings Nottingham City Council is offering grants to eligible SMEs of between £1,000 and £16,000. The grant can fund 35% of the net costs of the purchase and installation of energy saving measures such as LED lighting, energy efficient heating and cooling systems, refrigeration, solar panels and insulation.
  
  
• Information on the support available and how to apply for a grant can be found at www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/arc. Alternatively contact David Kelly, the Project Manager, at david.kelly@nottinghamcity.gov.uk or 0115 876 4271.

Severn Trent:

• Severn Trent is offering Nottinghamshire businesses (Restaurants, Cafés, Fast food, Pubs, Bars, Hotels, B&Bs) the chance to have a free water efficiency audit, and support with getting free upgrades and repairs as part of its Green Recovery programme. This initial early trial is exclusively for Notts businesses and is all free. 
• This is an exciting offer, and will help give us valuable insight into water usage, while making sure your business is only using the water it needs to. A small leak of just 6 litres per minute, can add up to around £8,000 a year, so it’s well worth signing up and have the free audit.

Dedicated webpages

We recognise that stepping into climate change and environmental sustainability subjects can be daunting. There is a lot of information out there. We wanted to make this more accessible, so we created a series of webpages that sit on both Nottingham BID (B2B) and It’s in Nottingham (B2C) websites. Amongst other items, there is a focus on what Nottingham is doing with its ambition to be Carbon Neutral by 2028, which would make it the first Carbon Neutral City in the UK. Titles found online include:

- Where to Start; Facts, figures and information that will build a better understanding of what it means to be carbon...

- Case Study – Lush; Inspiring businesses, taking steps to helping grow a better, greener Nottingham

- Opportunities & Grants; A list of opportunities and grants available for businesses in Nottingham looking to incorporate...

- And blogs, such as, The benefits of having houseplants in your office and workplace; Humans have an innate desire to be connected with nature, which scientists call ‘biophilia’, so...

We became Clean Champions!

Armed with pickers and bags, we took time out to participate in Nottingham City Council’s Big Nottingham Spring Clean.

This campaign kick started our weekly commitment to becoming Clean Champions. Each week we focus on tidying up an area of the city.

Nottingham BID CEO, Alex Flint said: “Participating in the Big Nottingham Spring Clean is the perfect opportunity for Nottingham BID to support Keep Britain Tidy’s ethos of working with businesses and organisations to help care for the environment on our doorsteps and ensure people live and work in places they can be proud of and prosper in. 

We all want to see positive changes to where we work and live and are asking city centre businesses to join us in bringing the sparkle back to our streets. Whether you’re a team of two or an office of two hundred, we’re calling on everyone to put down their pens and pick up a litter picker!”

Since starting the campaign, we have collected 56 purple sacks of litter!