Over 120 Cornish Businesses Go Green

The "Growing Greener" campaign, run by Cornwall Pure Business, the county's inward investment team, demonstrated Cornwall's green business credentials and how more sustainable business practices can lead to a positive impact on businesses' bottom line.

In addition to the events that took place throughout the week, over 120 Cornish businesses, approximately 2300 employees, took part in a day of action, where they adopted simple changes to their working practices to become more sustainable.

Pledges that companies signed up to included: changing your route to work - such as car sharing or walking, turning lights off where possible, using energy saving light bulbs, turning the heating down by one degree and thinking twice about what you really need to print.
 
Companies that took action included: Gingsters, Stalfors, Cut4Cloth, Falmouth Beach Hotel, Hendra Holiday Park, Fire Crest Fire Protection, Kazam Media, Finance Cornwall, Niddocks, Channel Computing, Piran Technologies and Jarrang, as well as a host of environmental focused firms such as: GPJ Consulting Engineers, Leap Media, EcoDrive, Ecohouse, Eco Incentives and Capture.

Commenting on the Day of Action, Lucy Thom, Inward Investment Manager said: "The idea behind the Day of Action, was to demonstrate how simple it is for businesses to become more sustainable, as well as highlight the county's commitment to going green. Cornwall is working towards becoming the green peninsula of the UK and this will only be possible with the business community's support."
 
Cornwall Pure Business worked with Envision, the partnership of not-for-profit independent environmental business support organisations in the South West, to deliver the "Growing Greener" campaign.

Lucy continued: "There is a real appetite among businesses to be more sustainable, but it's often talked about with little action being taken. The Day of Action helped prompt businesses to put in place longer term measures that are not only more environmentally friendly, but also more efficient, leading to greater cost savings."
 
As part of Business Week, Cornwall Enterprise; Bishop Fleming Chartered Accountants; Vickery Holman, Commercial Property Consultants; and Sofa Workshop, the national retailer; all provided support to enable four Cornish companies to receive free consultations with Envision. The audits being carried out will review where bottom line efficiency savings can be made, encouraging staff culture changes where necessary, as well as leveraging new business opportunities.
 
Justin Olosundé,   Envision Business Mentor, said: "Cornwall Business Week provided a fantastic opportunity for businesses to think twice about their working practices. There are many ways businesses that can make significant cost savings and increase profits by becoming more sustainable. Waste, water, transport, energy and even your building can all be sources of unnecessary financial spend as well as excessive carbon emissions, but there are often simple solutions to prevent this. For example by turning your thermostat down by one degree, you can save up to 8% on your heating bill."
 
To date, Envision has worked with 154 Cornish businesses, to improve their efficiency and lower their carbon emissions, all businesses have the potential to save costs and in one case a Cornish businesses made a massive saving of £60,000."

If you want to see who else signed up to be more sustainable go to: http://www.cornwallbusinessweek.co.uk/weve_pledged.html