West Yorkshire Combined Authority is offering business sustainability support to medium-sized businesses based in West Yorkshire support to become more sustainable.  The support on offer is as follows:

• Dedicated support from a Business Sustainability Manager
• A free resource efficiency audit (looking at energy, waste and water)
• Capital grant funding of 30% to help reduce your energy bills and CO2 emissions, for example LED lighting, solar PV etc.
• Funded Circular Economy support to align your business or products with Circular Economy principles
• 50% funding towards external sustainability related consultancy. For example: environmental management systems and net zero.
• Free carbon footprint and tracking tool, click here to register.
• Flood resilience grants.

To receive Business Sustainability Support any business would need to be checked for eligibility against the following criteria:

• The trading address where the support is needed must be within one of these Council areas: Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, Wakefield.
• Your business must be an SME with under 100 employees – defined by an annual turnover of under £50m or a balance sheet of under £43m, and not being part of a larger group of companies that takes it over these thresholds (group employee numbers cannot be above 250).
• Your business must trade in an eligible sector – this generally excludes primary agriculture, banking and financial services, and activities related to education or social care and franchises. The programme will advise on this eligibility.
• You must not have received more Minimum Financial Assistance than £273,000 through public funding in the last three fiscal years.

To find out if your business is eligible for support and to learn more, you can apply through the gateway team by phone at 0113 348 1818, by email at businessgrowth@the-lep.com, or via the website.