What you can do

There are a number of support packages and resources available for businesses to become greener, delivering other benefits including cost savings, improving staff wellbeing and boosting business reputation. See some useful resources below: 

• Colchester Business Enterprise Agency (COLBEA) Sustainable Business Training – Colbea provide support to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to help them with the first steps of understanding their carbon footprint and how to take action on climate change. They offer 1 ½ hour introductory workshops on understanding your carbon footprint and ways you can reduce this.  
• Colchester Institute – Colchester Institute offer courses on understanding your carbon footprint and ways to think about developing an action plan to reduce this. They offer a half day ‘Introduction to Carbon Literacy’ course which introduces organisations to how their day to day activities impact produced emissions and environmental impacts. They also ran a 12 session ‘Sustainability, Carbon Literacy, and how to plan for net zero’ pilot course that was an in depth programme covering a range of different environmental themes including biodiversity, waste, circular economy, transport and more.  
• Colchester eCargo Bike Library – This project is managed and run by Colchester City Council, focussing on breaking down the barriers for businesses to uptake the use of electric cargo (eCargo) bikes for their operations. eCargo bikes are electric bikes with a storage compartment on the front, enabling a variety of items to be delivered in a cheap, fast and green way. Find out more details on our website for how businesses can apply for a free short term loan of 1-3 months to try out one of the eCargo bikes and see if it could work for their business.  
• Essex Climate Action Commission Business Advice Pack – An advice pack of resources, funding and case studies that can help your business become greener.