Sustainability - West of England

Sustainability

YTKO is committed to providing free impactful sustainability support to businesses and the self-employed across the West of England.

Sustainable Impact Champions offers something for every type of business putting the focus on individuals and aiming to change behaviour. Whether you’re a sole trader searching for ways to reduce waste, just starting out and balancing your start-up costs, or a local bakery who needs to run industrial ovens throughout the day, YTKO truly understands the challenges that business owners face on a daily basis that can prevent you from exploring new ideas.

How to Become a Sustainable Impact Champion

Take our short Sustainability Assessment

Fill in our short Sustainability assessment to analyse your current environmental impact.

Start implementing sustainable practices based on our feedback

Each business will be given a concise checklist that they can immediately start working on.

Attend an Impact Experience Day

Learn from businesses who have paved the way with sustainable practises and speak to other business owners about overcoming barriers.

Submit your Impact Report

Demonstrate that you can make the recommended improvements and be awarded YTKO’s prestigious Sustainable Impact Champion status.

Start Your Sustainability Assessment
West of England Combined Authority Metro Mayor, Dan Norris, launches the Sustainable Impact Champion initiative by meeting with a variety of Bristol based businesses committed to reducing the region’s carbon.

Why sustainability?

Sustainability holds a wealth of opportunities for your business, sector, and the environment. From gaining a competitive advantage, becoming a preferred supplier or showing your customers that you are an environmentally responsible business. There are ways to save money, increase turnover and attract new customers through implementing or increasing your sustainable efforts.

However, some sustainability projects assume that to be a green business means making large-scale changes, retrofitting your premises or investing in a fleet of electric vehicles. Unfortunately, this approach can be intimidating for a small business which operates from a home office and can only make small scale changes.’

Next steps

If you’re based in Bristol, you can gain free access to our resources with fully funded programmes. Choose the relevant programme below to get started.

North and East Bristol Enterprise Support

South Bristol Enterprise Support

“The Sustainable Impact Champion programme focuses on something every business has – people. If we can get people excited about sustainability then they will work with their colleagues and networks to drive sustainability in their organisation and this can lead to more significant action – measuring carbon, investing in grant funding and plotting a way to net zero emissions. But we can’t skip ahead as this all starts by showing people that changing behaviour and simple easy changes can be the starting point on their green journey.”

Phil Stott, Head of Construction and Sustainability, YTKO

Once enrolled, we will invite everyone to either become or nominate an employee to become a Sustainable Impact Champion. Each Champion will be given a concise checklist, and guided through a series of online and in-person resources, mentoring, and inspirational events to help implement a lasting sustainable strategy whilst overcoming barriers, such as finance and behaviours.

Click here to see our upcoming Impact Experience Days

Once the Champion demonstrates that they meet the criteria of the Sustainable Impact checklist, each business will be awarded YTKO’s prestigious Sustainable Impact Champion status, recognised by Bristol City Council and the West of England Combined Authority. The logo can be proudly displayed across websites, social channels, events, email signatures, offices, and shop fronts to promote your sustainable values.

Sustainability Success Stories