Nottingham Trent University

NTU’s sustainability in enterprise: Driving sustainable growth for Nottingham’s SMEs

Between 2021 and 2023, Nottingham Trent University (NTU) proudly delivered the 'Sustainability in Enterprise’ (SiE) programme. Co-funded with the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), our transformative £4m project inspired 218 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Greater Nottingham towards a ‘Net-Zero’ future, achieving total savings of almost 1,000 tCO2e.

Collaborative support was provided from teams across the University to conduct environmental audits, retrofitting of premises, life-cycle assessments, and redesign recommendations for products and packaging, while over 500 of our students helped deliver carbon and retrofit consultancies. Our carbon-management workshops enabled business leaders to establish effective decarbonisation strategies, and over £260,000 was awarded to businesses to help finance carbon-reduction initiatives.

Recruitment grants allowed SMEs to embed sustainability targets into 88 new graduate-level roles, and a peer-support programme helped these ambitious graduates through a blend of inspiration, information, tools, and resources.

Annual carbon savings achieved with the initiative:

• CO2t savings over the life cycle of the project: At least 970 tCO2e estimated emissions saved June 2021 - June 2023.

Top 3 Learnings

1. Involve students and graduates in knowledge exchange for experiential learning and long-term change.
2. Leverage collaboration across all departments, including Estates to co-design and deliver projects for success.
3. Ensure low carbon business support programmes offer holistic and social impacts that can be measured and inform policy.