Convergence Investments

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1.6.2010

Improving Your Resource Efficiency – Revenue (Serco Regional Services)

The project is for 10 months (1 June 2010 – 31 March 2011) and provides continuity of the current Deeper Broader IDB contract for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly which comes to an end on 31 May 2010 following an extension to utilise existing under spend.

The current Deeper Broader IDB contract, which incorporates both the Deeper Broader IDB project (Growth) and IYRE (Revenue) has supported over 730 businesses and, of these, over 600 businesses have received intensive assistance.  This latest application reports that the current project has brokered/referred to 660 public sector support providers, of which 509 have been to Solutions for Business products.  In addition the project has brokered 736 businesses to private sector support. 

The continuation of the service takes the form of 3 interlinked, but separate proposals: 

• The continuation of the Deeper Broader IDB (Growth) project
• The continuation of Improving Your Resource Efficiency (IYRE Revenue) project and
• Improving Your Resource Efficiency (IYRE Capital Grants) – a new proposal and not part of the current Deeper, Broader IDB contract

This investment is for the IYRE Revenue element only. It should be noted that this is an interim solution proposal, while a wider review of business support under Convergence Priority Axis 2 is undertaken to establish the scale and any changes to scope needed for the remainder of the Programme.

This interim 10 month project is a ‘Solutions for Business’ product delivering environmental business support to 260 small and medium enterprises (156 of these will receive intensive assistance).   

Access to the scheme is through Business Link’s Information, Diagnostic and Brokerage (IDB) service supported by qualified IYRE Specialist Environmental Advisers who will undertake detailed resource efficiency action plans and environmental audits for businesses to reduce energy, waste, raw material and water use.  These specialist advisors will support businesses on a one to one basis and also at a local level by means of workshops and meetings. The workshops and meetings will be an opportunity for businesses to meet, share ideas, share success stories and avoid pitfalls experienced by others. There will also be the need for these specialist advisors to coach and keep the wider Business Advisor team up to date.

All Specialist Advisers will be at least qualified or work towards Institute of Environmental Management and Accreditation (IEMA) standards. All existing Specialist Advisers are SFEDI (Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative) accredited and any new advisers will be required to complete their SFEDI accreditation within 12 months of joining.

The project includes a Development Voucher Scheme for high growth businesses which enables clients to access private and third sector assistance to implement their plans. This will operate on a points scoring system in order to determine the financial value of the voucher and provide both transparency and consistency in delivery. This will require that companies receiving this support have a significant impact on the environment through their operations or that they have the potential to develop innovative products and processes to improve environmental performance.

The project will actively undertake specific marketing activity centred on awareness raising and climate change and will include promotional activity to raise awareness of issues affecting businesses.  In addition a programme of events will be run which focus on key issues which have a specific environmental focus covering the following topics:

• Climate change and risk management
• ISO 14001
• Public procurement and environmental metrics
• Resource efficiency clubs

The environmental events will aim to cover themes linked to issues including energy resilience, climate change adaption, reducing carbon footprint and making improvements to environmental business credentials.

The service will procure specialist knowledge and information from organisations such as the National Physical Laboratory and local sector groups to help businesses overcome technical problems in order to speed up commercialisation of new environmental products and services.