A model for regional support? Enworks is improving business efficiency in the Northwest

Simon, our UK Programme Manager, recently attended a one-day conference in Manchester hosted by ENWORKS. ENWORKS, who won an award in 2007, is a leading environmental business support service based in the Northwest. It supports small and medium businesses (SMEs) to become more resource efficient, reducing their carbon impact and increasing their productivity.

The event ,"Obvious in Hindsight: A strategic insight into successful environmental business support", was designed to share a decade's worth of experience in delivering environmental business support and provide the opportunity for delegates to contribute to the debate on key issues. The Chair of our UK judging panel, Prof. Paul Ekins, and Todd Holden, ENWORKS' Director, were amongst those giving presentations throughout the day. These covered topics such as the challenge and potential of resource efficiency, the value of regions and linkages and the implications of ENWORKS' experience for government policy.

This event was also a great opportunity to showcase “ENWORKS in a Box”, an online tool developed with the help of the Ashden Award prize money to serve as a practical resource for businesses and support services. It is designed to share knowledge, the lessons learnt and to provide guidance for other organisations or partnerships that are looking to deliver environmental business support.

Organisations like these mark out the potential for regional business support services to help deliver large reductions in energy consumption with relatively little cost. ENWORKS has developed an incredibly successful model of business support, stimulating dramatic savings in carbon and reduced costs through efficiency measures, saving Northwest businesses millions of pounds each year. It supports around 1,000 businesses every year, helping them to achieve £100m in savings annually and regional reductions in CO2 emissions of 303,300 tonnes each year. The model they have developed has the potential to be adapted and replicated in other regions, bringing massive benefits to SMEs across the UK.


Find out more about our winners on our website.