Boosting resource efficiency at a regional level

The ENWORKS business support programme in England’s Northwest

Introducing ENWORKS

• Established in 2001; 10th anniversary in 2011

• Innovative ENWORKS partnership model in England’s Northwest

• Award-winning environmental business support

• Decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation, with focus on resource efficiency

• Helped over 10,000 businesses with converting environmental pressures into competitive advantages

• Embedded in Northwest regional policy – Regional Economic Strategy, Climate Change Action Partnership, Sustainable Consumption & Production (SCP)

Using ERDF

• Economic project delivering results through environmental improvements

• ERDF Co-financed activity (SMEs) matched with NWDA SP grant

• NWDA SP grant activity alongside (Non SMEs and ERDF ineligible costs)

• Current programme value £9.3m - October 2009 to June 2013

• Co-financed activity £6.99m (£3.49m ERDF & £3.49m SP)

• NWDA only activity £2.3m (all SP)

• Running two projects concurrently:

• enables cost recovery for delivery organisations

• removes barriers to business engagement

• increases cost effectiveness

• Key considerations:

• naming delivery partners in bid

• managing cash flow

• compliance and administration

Challenges we face

• Addressing market failure in business resource efficiency

• Awareness doesn’t always lead to action

- 82% of businesses believe resource efficiency is important - BUT only 23% plan to take action in 12 months- Majority are one-off, low-impact interventions

• Common misconceptions – irrelevant / costly / new equipment / time-consuming / energy only / threat not opportunity

Overcoming the challenges

• Helping businesses with annual financial and environmental savings of:

• £122 million (€145m) in business costs

• 681,000 tonnes of CO2e

• 4.7 million m3 of water

• 3 million tonnes of materials

• 388,000 tonnes of waste diverted from landfill

• More than 7,370 regional jobs created and safeguarded

• £210 million (€250m) sales contracts secured and retained

Sustained impact

Saving typeAnnual savings -

pipelineAnnual savings

- achievedAchieved -

accrued to date

Business cost savings £ 93.3 million £ 29.4 million £ 83.8 million

€ 110.9 million € 34.9 million € 99.7 million

CO2e savings / tonnes 590,290 123,320 406,520

Water savings / m3 4.1 million 1.6 million 4.3 million

Material savings / tonnes 645,420 2.4 million 16.6 million

Waste diverted from landfill / tonnes

293,420 100,230 209,470

ENWORKS average savings

Average cost savings - per business: £21,263 (€25,107) pa - per improvement opportunity: £7,776 (€9,182) pa

Average CO2e savings - per business supported: 48 tonnes pa - per improvement opportunity: 31 tonnes pa

Value for money

• Most cost-effective support of its kind in the UK - compared to other regional and aggregated national environmental support programmes

• From every £100 (€119) invested in ENWORKS we create annually recurring savings of:

£1,200 (€1,426) in business costs8 tonnes of CO2e55 m3 of water30 tonnes of materials7 tonnes of waste diverted from landfill

£800 (€951) of sales contracts retained; £136 (€162) sales won

• Breaking the mould – 65% of cost savings achieved at no capital cost

Key success factors

• Mix of public funding sources – no exclusions / no postcode lottery for businesses

• Partnership of organisations – locally embedded & trusted by beneficiaries and other stakeholders

• Breadth of services – no barriers, we address energy, water, materials and waste, covering eco-design, process efficiency, sustainable procurement, legal compliance, climate change adaptation…. risk and reward

• Targeted and tailored support – linked to the potential to make savings, hands-on on-site advice and off-site services, focus on cost effectiveness and impact

• ENWORKS Online Resource Efficiency Toolkit – data is turned into information, it both catalyses action in business and the sharing of best practice across the project

ENWORKS Online Resource Efficiency Toolkit

• Unique web-based software, launched in 2004

• Log, prioritise, manage and report on resource efficiency actions

• Clear audit trail, traceable to each improvement opportunity and linked to official UK Government CO2e conversion factors (Defra)

• Adopted by other English Regional Development Agencies and Welsh Assembly Government

8,881 registered businesses, across the UK Tracking 30,589 individual improvement opportunities Recording total business cost savings of £342.7 million (€407.4m) Tracking total CO2e savings of 829,738 tonnes

Regional support

Location of businesses supported by ENWORKS in England’s Northwest:

Regional impact

Distribution of cost savings ENWORKS is helping businesses with, across the Northwest:

Distribution of CO2e savings ENWORKS is helping businesses with, across the Northwest:

Find out more

Contact us on: +44 (0)161 236 6348Email: info@enworks.comWeb: www.enworks.com

For further information and video case studies: www.enworks.com/about-uswww.enworks.com/case-studies

ENWORKS In a Box: www.enworksinabox.com

ENWORKS Online Resource Efficiency Toolkit: www.efficiencytoolkit.net

ENWORKS Green Intelligence: www.greenintelligence.org.uk