Case study: Southwark Climate Collective programme
Funding overview
Organisation name: Better Bankside
Programme name: Southwark Climate Collective
Funding value: £653,775
Programme objective: to enable and empower SMEs across Southwark to take action on climate change
UKSPF strand: Supporting Local Business
About the programme
Led by Better Bankside Business Improvement District (BID), the Southwark Climate Collective is a partnership including Southwark Council, Team London Bridge, The Blue Bermondsey, and Elephant and Castle Business Forum.
In 2023, the BID was awarded £653,775 UKSPF funding to deliver a bespoke support programme designed to enable and empower SMEs across the borough to take action on climate change.
In action
Better Bankside research showed that many of the SMEs in the local area are aware of the economic and climate benefits of decarbonising, and are enthusiastic about becoming more sustainable, but lack the time, skills and resources to identify impactful actions and implement changes.
The Southwark Climate Collective sets out to address these challenges, through a free 12-month programme comprising audits, tailored recommendations, and a community-focused approach to decarbonisation, featuring networking events and expert-led workshops designed to support knowledge-exchange, ideas generation and skills development.
Testimonial
“The work done and audits conducted on our bakery have allowed us to deep dive into where we’re using energy, throughout our processes and within our facility and look at how we can reduce our carbon footprint, ultimately reducing pollution, and unnecessary use of energy, which is not only great for our environment, but helps us spend less on fuel use.”
- Alexander West, Operations Director and Co-founder, The Gluten Free Bakery.
Solving the challenge
The initiative has resonated with businesses across the borough. After launching the programme in October 2023, within four months, 160 Southwark SMEs had signed up, with more on the waiting list.
Approximately, 15 per cent of businesses taking part in the programme are Black, Asian or minority ethnic owned or led, while 28 per cent are female led or owned.
Participating businesses are tasked with decarbonising one of four areas of their business operations: energy, freight, waste or supply chains. Across these four 'workstreams', 128 audits have taken place to date.
Whilst many of the measures recommended to businesses relate to behaviour change and come at low or no cost, others require some level of investment. These range from investment in cargo bikes to the installation of LED lighting, solar panels and heat pumps.
Better Bankside is leveraging its network to identify further funding sources that can support Southwark Climate Collective businesses on their journeys to net zero.
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