Leicestershire’s Business Gateway offers green suppliers a shop window for sustainable products and services         

The Business Gateway for Leicester and Leicestershire is calling on suppliers of environmentally friendly products and services to make contact, so that it can showcase these to local businesses trying to become more sustainable.     

Rachel York, Manager of the Business Gateway, explained: “We are consistently encouraging small local businesses to reduce waste, find a renewable supplier for their energy and make other changes to reduce their carbon footprint.  This will save them money and attract new customers, so it makes business sense.  However, we are aware that it can be difficult to find suppliers of these green solutions and we wanted to make it easier for our small business clients.”

The Business Gateway plans to include details of green suppliers in its Business Support Finder.  This is a searchable directory of services which small business clients may find useful in supporting their growth.  It is part of the website www.bizgateway.org.uk.

Mrs York added: “Ideally we would like to prioritise suppliers who are based in Leicester or Leicestershire to retain the business locally but suppliers from outside the region are also welcome, particularly if they offer something that no one else does.  One thing we ask from suppliers is that, as well as being environmentally focussed, they try to meet some of the criteria from the Social Value Act that we follow.  Being a publicly funded body, we can’t recommend these suppliers, of course, but we think it is valuable to make our clients aware of them.”

Over the past year, the need for businesses to operate more sustainably has become a priority as the UK strives to reach Net Zero by 2050 and Leicester City Council aims to do the same by 2030.  The Business Gateway has delivered two programmes of webinars on the theme of ‘Reducing Carbon Emissions in your Small Business’, both of which proved very popular.  It has also worked with the LLEP to launch the Zellar carbon reduction scheme to nearly 100 small local businesses.  This pilot scheme is the first of its kind in the Midlands region and only the second in the UK as a whole.

Any business wishing to find out more should email peter.allen@bizgateway.org.uk and mark their message ‘green supplier’.

ENDS

For an interview or more information, please email peter.allen@bizgateway.org.uk or phone 07908 610260.

Notes to Editors:

The Public Services (Social Value) Act came into force on 31 January 2013. It requires people who commission public services to think about how they can also secure wider social, economic and environmental benefits.

Before they start the procurement process, commissioners should think about whether the services they are going to buy, or the way they are going to buy them, could secure these benefits for their area or stakeholders.

The Act is a tool to help commissioners get more value for money out of procurement. It also encourages commissioners to talk to their local provider market or community to design better services, often finding new and innovative solutions to difficult problems.

Government published guidance in December 2012 supporting the Act here