[20 October 2020]

How SparkFund is helping businesses make big strides towards lowering their carbon footprint

Many businesses are already making bold steps in order to reduce their emissions and become more energy efficient. For some businesses however, especially smaller businesses, it can be difficult to know where to start and which areas to focus on.

Let’s start the transition to a low carbon economy

In line with the government’s initiative to ‘Build Back Better’ and more sustainably, SparkFund Low Carbon R&D grants are opening the door to new opportunities and demystifying the confusion that surrounds lowering emissions and why cutting back doesn’t result in cutting corners.

One common misconception is that Low Carbon R&D grants only focus on wind farms and solar panels. The reality is that a grant can support your business in more ways than you realise and help you introduce and implement a wide range of innovative new processes, products and services.

Today, more than ever, businesses are looking to increase efficiencies to reduce costs and improve productivity and profitability. With a SparkFund Low carbon grant driving these changes, businesses can begin to explore every area of their operations and across their supply chain.

Working together means we can work wonders

From reducing the power you consume on your premises to reaching out to your suppliers and other like-minded local businesses that you partner with; the accumulative effect of a few small changes can soon make a big impact. Simple measures that include using less raw materials, fewer components or reducing your packaging are just some of the transformations the grant will help you implement.

Maybe you’ve always wanted to make your product smaller or lighter, or perhaps you’re looking for ways to incorporate recycled materials and capture the value in your waste. The opportunities to use less energy and meet your targets for lowering emissions can now be realised.

Supported by our Low Carbon Consultants

The journey to a greener and more sustainable planet requires the collective efforts and expertise of multiple businesses and specialists, which is why SparkFund have teamed up with three green energy consultancy firms. Collectively, they will bring their invaluable knowledge and sector experience as well as their ability to understand and validate projects and quantify the carbon savings that can be made.

Giraffe Innovation

“Giraffe Innovation are looking forward to working on the SparkFund and providing our unbiased professional opinion on R&D projects potential environmental benefits. We will help  companies develop the necessary methods and protocols to measure the carbon savings and this will help them to have a clear understanding of the environmental benefits of their project and potentially generate even further environmental savings.”

Mark Dowling

Green Gain

“Green Gain is delighted to have become a delivery partner to the SparkFund’s Low Carbon research and development programme. This is an exciting opportunity to support businesses leading in low-carbon innovation and we hope to add value to participating businesses by helping them to better understand the impacts their innovations will have on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. We hope that our considerable experience and expertise in the low-carbon and circular economy sectors will facilitate the development of exciting new, low-carbon products, services and processes.”

Steven Ogden

Avieco

“Our engagement with the SparkFund programme will help small businesses adopt leading industry standards for quantifying their carbon savings. Therefore, promoting more SMEs in the Humber, York, North Yorkshire to consider the low carbon grant application. This has a wider impact on creating new business opportunities and on aligning with the national shift towards a low carbon economy. We are an innovative team; hence we are also excited to learn about the great ideas and low carbon innovations brought forward by SparkFund SMEs.”

Cynthia Adu

Healthier for the environment and healthier for your business

In addition to the support we’ll receive from our consultants, SparkFund now has two dedicated Innovation Managers whose sole focus is on Low Carbon R&D projects. To connect and find out more, you can catch up with both of the managers who will be attending and exhibiting at two virtual sector related conferences including the Waterline Summit between the 19th and 23rd October.

SparkFund is focussed on helping small or medium size enterprises (SME) currently based, or planning to relocate, in the Humber or York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Areas. So, if you are a SME business and you’re looking to invest in a greener and smarter future, you could be eligible for Low Carbon R&D funding. What’s more, when you invest, we could match it with up to £50k of support and this could make a substantial difference to your low carbon project.

As we all collectively start to do our bit, the accumulative effect of more and more businesses adopting carbon savings will soon be felt and real life-changing results will begin to emerge and be realised.