Key Highlights - Sustainable Business in the South East
It has been a busy year for Sustainable Business activities in the South East and listed below are some key highlights for the period 1st April 2005 to 31st March 2006:
SEEDA's Sustainable Business Strategy
In March 2006, SEEDA agreed a new strategy for Sustainable Business in the region. The aim of the Strategy is to increase the number of businesses adopting sustainable business practices in the South East.
For a copy of the Strategy please go to www.seeda.co.uk.
South East Sustainable Business Partnership
SEEDA has partnered with a number of organisations across the South East with the aim of promoting Sustainable Business. To date we have seven partnerships in the region. These partnerships provide practical help and support to the region's businesses including issues such as waste management, energy efficiency, utilities management and resource productivity.
Pilot Partnership Schemes Run with Business in the Community
A number of successful pilot schemes were run by Business in the Community to promote Corporate Social Responsibility in the region. These schemes included establishing a South East Leadership Team to focus on addressing the issues of employability / skills and worklessness through a focus on education. In addition Business in the Community members were involved in providing leadership in Corporate Social Responsibility through a number of support programmes such as the "Seeing is Believing" visits and Best Practice workshops.
Sustainable Business Awards
The fifth SEEDA Sustainable Business Awards for the South East were held on the 9th March 2006 and attended by over 500 business leaders from across the region. The event was held at the Corn Exchange in Brighton, East Sussex and was hosted by Floella Benjamin OBE.
The Awards are all about encouraging and promoting a sustainable approach to business in the region by celebrating excellence, significant achievement and best practice. All the finalists are proof that harnessing sustainability can produce positive business results.
Slough Business Community Partnership (SBCP)
In March 2001 the SBCP was formed as a company limited by guarantee and a ‘not for profit’ organisation. At that time it had nine Board Members. The Slough Business Community Partnership was formed in 2001 has grown to be one of the leading Business Community Partnerships in the UK. It goes from strength to strength and now has an active membership of 63 companies and organisations who represent large, medium and small sized business, the Council and the Voluntary Sector. It provides the expertise and knowledge for local companies to enable them to develop their own Corporate Social Responsibility strategy and identify ways of becoming engaged in the community. This spread of ‘best’ practice cascading down from larger organisations to medium and small sized enterprises (SMEs) is a unique concept and is a testament to the collaborative success of the SBCP.
Business Resource Efficiency and Waste (BREW) Programme
Landfill tax is being used to fund the National Business Resource Efficiency & Waste (BREW) Programme. The BREW programme was launched in April 2005 and is being delivered by SEEDA within the South East region.
The objective of the BREW programme is to incentivise businesses to reduce the amount of waste they send to landfill by providing advice and support on facility management, resource efficiency, waste reduction measures and compliance with environmental legislation. Therefore, helping businesses to reduce their operating costs, enhance their profit margins, ensure compliance with environmental legislation while also reducing their environmental impacts.
EnviroBusiness
EnviroBusiness is a membership organisation set up in 2005 to support the growth of environmental technologies and services companies. We do this by enabling collaboration and interaction between businesses, researchers, buyers and investors to identify and exploit new opportunities. This may involve assistance:
- Securing funding for growth or R&D
- Creating collaborative partnerships to exploit specific opportunities
- Creating demand for environmental technologies and services by working with potential buyers and investors
- Promoting UK businesses to the global market with UKTI