Taking part in the Business Climate Challenge
2023 has been a big year for Bankside businesses on their energy saving journey with the Mayor of London’s Business Climate Challenge.
The Business Climate Challenge provides free, end-to-end, expert support to London SMEs and challenges them to reduce their energy by 10% over a year. Over 200 businesses across London are taking part this year with 37 of those businesses from Bankside.
Why SMEs?
SMEs are a vibrant and vital part of our economy, making up 99% of the business population and accounting for 40% of the UK’s non-domestic emissions. We know small businesses care about climate change but having the skills, time, funding or knowledge can be a real barrier to taking action – particularly when there are so many challenges facing businesses from covid recovery to Brexit to cost of living.
Success in Bankside
Better Bankside took part in a pilot of the Business Climate Challenge in 2019 where 19 businesses took part, reducing energy consumption by 16% on average with an associated cost savings of £8,300. The cohort of businesses reduced carbon emissions by 213 tonnes CO2e collectively which is a huge achievement. The programme was then scaled up to over 200 businesses taking part across London in 2023.
So far, 12 brilliant Bankside businesses have already achieved the 10% energy savings target! A huge congratulations to:
- King’s College London
- OpenCredo
- Boro Bistro
- PensionBee
- Flying Fantastic
- Brands2Life
- Makower Architects
- Lumiere London
- MI Media
- The Team
- Glaziers Hall
- KBH ON-Train Media
For Bankside businesses receiving their technical support before March 2023, businesses have reduced energy consumption by an average of 20.6%. Compared to a London-wide average of 4.3% savings this is an incredible achievement and we are immensely proud of our Bankside businesses.
Businesses will continue to monitor their energy savings through the io-gen dashboard which gives a real-time visualisation of a businesses’ energy use and progress towards the 10% savings target. We will continue to celebrate businesses achieving their targets and support them on their energy savings journey.
Celebrating success
Businesses from all over London came together at the British Library to celebrate the success of the Business Climate Challenge. We were joined by Shirley Rodriguez, Deputy Mayor for Environment to celebrate all that London businesses have achieved in 2023. We heard from three panels who were discussing the journey to net zero for small and medium sized businesses; how participant businesses got on; and what’s next for our businesses? It was a chance to meet with neighbours, share experiences and look to the future.
What next?
For businesses looking to get involved or take that next step, we are delighted to announce the launch of the Southwark Climate Collective.
Better Bankside was awarded £650,000 through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to continue and expand the Business Climate Challenge for SMEs across Southwark – looking at energy, waste, freight and supply chains for businesses.
With free, bespoke and end-to-end support offered through the Southwark Climate Collective we are supporting 160 SMEs along their sustainability journey throughout 2024.
Find out more on our website or get in touch with Sadie Hodgson, Sustainability Manager: sh@betterbankside.co.uk