City’s environment businesses embark on Ride the Wave

The Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce has announced the first two workshops to kick off its major business support programme, Ride the Wave, which is running across the city between July and December 2012. Both initial workshops are aimed at the city’s newest growth* area, environmental businesses, aiming to give these cool companies a warm helping hand.

On the afternoon of July 31st, “Eco-marketing: selling an environmental brand” will focus on how environmental organisations should be marketing themselves, creating demand for their products and services while also promoting sustainable living and responsible consumption. The workshop will look at the unique requirements of marketing a green business, from building a strong brand in a noisy marketplace to the customer motivations that lead to sales.

Then on the afternoon of August 22nd comes “Funding v. Finding: balancing grants with earned income”. This workshop explores the transition from welcome, but sometimes risky, grant funding to solid, profitable income from products and services. It examines how grants can be crucial as a ‘leg-up’ for a fledgling organisation but should only be seen as a way in to developing more reliable, long-lasting income.

Environmental businesses are seen as a potentially strong source of economic growth and new jobs in the city, as companies in the sector – many of them quite young, with exciting, innovative ideas – develop and flourish. In creating the workshops, the Chamber consulted a number of environmental businesses and found a strong need for very practical advice targeted specifically at their sector, rather than just general business know-how. The resulting workshops cover the two areas of highest demand: marketing and money.

The Eco-marketing workshop will be led by Erica Russell, who is Head of Sustainability and Insight at BSK CIC, having had a long career in marketing at a number of PLCs, and who regularly presents to audiences on marketing their green credentials. Erica helped BSK-CiC become a finalist in the national Green Marketing Awards.

Also present will be a number of Brighton & Hove-based green businesses, including environmental PR specialist, Jasmin Robertson of Sussed PR, who said: "The world around us is evolving daily and businesses need to adapt to remain competitive, especially in the growing sustainable business sector. Now there are more players fighting for the same space, the need for strong marketing and PR is really emphasised."

Funding v. Finding will be led by David Bloomfield, a director of Peter Heath Consultancy Ltd. David is a qualified chemist who’s worked in the global electronics industry, has run a glass recycling start-up and was second-in-command of an eco-focused social enterprise that won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise. As a member of a Dragon’s Den style investment angel network, he regularly hears investment pitches and helps new ventures turn their ideas into great businesses.

David said: “Public funding is unpredictable, rather like the British weather, and this means that for environmental enterprises that already many see as a little quirky, it is vital to develop robust self sustaining business models.”

Also present at the workshops will be other local environmental businesses talking about what it means to be green in Brighton & Hove. These will include Nigel’s Eco Store.

And summarising the value of the workshops, Damian Tow, from Brighton Eco Technology Show, said: "In this time of financial and environmental recession businesses need to work smarter to prosper. For organisations selling more sustainable products & services developing core business skills such as marketing and raising investment are key, so we welcome the Ride the Wave environmental workshops in providing this support locally."

Zoë Osmond, Business Development Manager in Environment at the University of Brighton said: “Supporting environmental companies locally will help the city create and retain green jobs. Despite the economic downturn and uncertainty about certain green policy areas, the UK's low carbon, environmental goods and services sector grew by 4.7% in the last year, adding £5.4bn to the economy. This compares to the growth rate for the UK economy as a whole in the same year of 0.7% (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills). Ensuring we benefit from this growth potential locally is vital.”
 
Full details of Ride the Wave workshops are on the Chamber website at http://www.businessinbrighton.org.uk/ridethewave. Details of venues, dates and speakers for further workshops will be confirmed as the programme rolls out over the next few weeks.

By Rob Shepherd, Press Dispensary

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk