Brief guide to help with financing a green project in Brighton & Hove

Today's blog comes from Doly Garcia from Green Shoots Project, an independent Community Interest company focusing on environmental awareness-raising and green business development in the South East of England.

If your company is looking at expanding workforce or starting a project with an innovative product or service, the perfect starting point would be the Green Growth Platform. It is an initiative delivered by the University of Brighton in partnership with other key organisations locally. The aim of the Green Growth Platform is to support the growth of environmental sectors and the move to a low carbon economy in Sussex. They are doing this through business support and engagement, knowledge and innovation, skills and training, community engagement and sustainable infrastructure.

If your green company is having difficulties expanding, Coast 2 Capital has launched its Business Growth Grants programme in Brighton & Hove, aimed to medium and small sized businesses that are planning expansion and growth but having difficulties financing themselves through this. Applications are especially welcome from low carbon and environmental technology small and medium enterprises.

If you are involved in a small non-profit social enterprise with an annual income of £35,000 or less, Brighton & Hove City Council has a programme of small grants. The Council have traditionally been keen to give grants to green projects, and even more so since the Green Party is in power.

Beyond the local, it can be worthwhile to look at national awards for green projects, such as the Ashden Awards or the Berti Green Accelerator.

If your green project involves young people, one of the biggest national grants available is the Big Lottery programme“Our Environment Our Future”, a UK-wide 30 million investment which will support projects enabling young people aged 11-24 to improve their local environment and learn new skills.

Green architects, eco-refurbishers and other companies involved in greening properties could find it useful to engage in the Locality brokers service. It partners community enterprises with property professionals, and may provide some funding for the project.

For companies and projects with a great level of supporters or potential supporters, another source of funding that is proving very successful is crowdfunding. This is the practice of aiming for many small investors as opposed to a few big ones, using a website to advertise the project and receive payments, and it seems to work especially well for green projects. There are many crowdfunding platforms, and the UK Crowdfunding Association can help you find the right one for you. There is even a crowdfunding platform specifically aimed at social and environmental businesses, CrowdMission.

There are many other smaller sources of funding, and methods of accessing loans for those that are finding it difficult to get a loan from their bank. The full list will be made available as part of our training materials that will soon be available on our website.

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