How the Growth Company is Leading the Way on Net Zero

• Net Zero Week is an annual campaign that aims to raise awareness about climate change and promote actions to help the UK achieve its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
• The Growth Company (GC) has adopted an ambitious target to reach net zero by 2035.
• Our strategy is based on four key pillars: our colleagues, our customers, our employers, and cross group working with other business units.

It’s Net Zero Week – a reminder that we’re all responsible for tackling the climate emergency and realising the UK’s goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The Growth Company is working hard to achieve net zero by 2035 – ahead of the government’s nationwide goal. We’re doing this by adjusting the way we operate as a business, from small daily changes to big sustainability initiatives such as carbon literacy training and the introduction of a network of green champions.

But it’s not just our own carbon footprint that we’re aiming to reduce – we’re helping our partners, stakeholders, and participants to reduce theirs as well.

And these efforts are beginning to pay off, with several sustainability projects already delivering results across some of our employment programmes.

GM Work and Health

Together with Green Economy, the Growth Company’s Greater Manchester Work and Health team recently organised a full day of sustainability training for customers at the Green Skills Academy in Trafford.

The training included a sustainability session and a tour of the Low Energy Smart Home and Academy exhibit. Following positive feedback, the course is set to be rolled out across other employment contracts in the coming months.

Working Well: Support to Succeed

Working Well: Support to Succeed engages economically inactive Greater Manchester residents who are not currently receiving assistance or seeking work.

Although the programme is relatively new, the team have already been busy on the sustainability front. They coordinated environmental awareness training for seven supply chain delivery partners – again, in collaboration with Green Economy.

The training is now being offered to employers to encourage them to become more sustainable.  

Four Key Pillars

Grace Watson, head of Restart in Greater Manchester and lead for the Growth Company’s employment sustainability focus, is leading the way on the journey to net zero.

Grace explained: “We’re striving to embed net zero and sustainability into everything we do across our employment services, focusing on four key pillars: our colleagues, our customers, our employers and cross group working with other business units.

“Becoming a sustainable organisation is crucial, and over the last 18 months we’ve made a lot of changes that have reduced our carbon footprint.

“We’ve introduced procedures such as monitoring the mode of transport our customers use to attend their appointments and paying close attention to our meter readings and energy usage in our offices. We’ve also built a network of 29 Green Champions across all of our contracts and areas.

“Our champions meet quarterly to share best practice and information about policy updates, strategies and awareness days which can be fed directly to their teams.”

These are just some examples of the incredible work our teams are doing to support our net zero mission. Each project makes a difference; even small changes can have a big impact.

Glossary of Terms

The language of sustainability can be confusing, so we’ve put together a handy list of definitions to help you make sense of it.

Carbon emissions: When gases are released into the air from activities like burning fossil fuels for energy. The phrase is sometimes used as a shorthand to describe all greenhouse gases.

Carbon footprint: A measure of greenhouse gas emissions over a given period. Footprints are expressed in tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e). (The Growth Company's carbon footprint for 2022/23 was 7,173 tCO2e).

Carbon literacy: Awareness of the carbon costs and impacts of everyday activities and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions. (The Growth Company launched a carbon literacy training programme in 2023).

Environmental sustainability: The ability to maintain an ecological balance in the natural environment and conserve natural resources to support the wellbeing of current and future generations.

Greenhouse gases: Gases in the earth's atmosphere that trap heat and have the effect of warming planet’s surface. These include: Carbon dioxide (CO2); Methane (CH4); Nitrous oxide (N20); Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs); Perfluorocarbons (PFCs); Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).

Net zero: A target of negating the amount of greenhouse gases produced by human activity, to be achieved by reducing emissions and implementing methods of absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. (In February 2022, The Growth Company updated its commitment to becoming Net Zero across scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2035). 

The Growth Company

The Growth Company is an award-winning social enterprise with a mission to generate growth, create jobs, and improve lives.

We help people and businesses across the UK to develop, grow and succeed through a range of employment, skills and business support services. We provide employment, justice, and health services across Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region, Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire and Humber.

Contact us today to find out more.