An award-winning social enterprise has pledged to help the region’s companies take climate action after joining the North East England Chamber of Commerce.

Community interest company Climate Action North has joined the region’s largest business organisation in a bid to support as many companies as possible on their journey to net zero and build a resilient, green economy.

Spanning the North of England and the Scottish borders, Climate Action North offers a raft of initiatives, training, and events that actively encourage and engage with businesses to mobilise climate action and make the changes desperately needed to fight the climate crisis.

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A key offer for North East England Chamber of Commerce members is its Business Action Toolkit, which having completed a successful pilot will be launched this year. The toolkit is designed to help companies identify their climate risks, build their resilience, take action, and support their net zero journey.

Climate Action North’s Managing Director, Sharon Lashley, said: “We’re excited to be working with the Chamber to help its members become climate resilient while taking action to become net zero. The Chamber have been long-standing supporters of climate action plans and were stakeholders in previous work by the former regional partnership ClimateNE. We look forward to picking up this important strategic work with them once again.”

“The Business Action Toolkit covers risks such as severe weather events, skills shortages, and supply chain issues associated with the climate crisis.

“Those who use the online toolkit will get a bespoke report highlighting solutions that can form the basis of an action plan to achieve net zero.”

The development of the toolkit is being led by Duco Digital, where Director, Darren Winter, said: “We are delighted to be supporting Climate Action North by developing this dynamic, engaging and personalised digital solution to help all sizes of businesses and organisations easily understand the positive and practical changes they can make to help the environment; with some of the small changes also benefiting them through efficiency and productivity.”

Businesses can also access CPD accredited training courses through the Climate Action North Training Academy.

The online training courses include key topics such as community rewilding; energy efficiency; renewable energy; reducing emissions and net zero; ocean pollution and single use plastics; environmental awareness and the efficient use of resources.

Relationship Manager at the North East England Chamber of Commerce, Julie Charlton, said: “It is great to have Climate Action North in our membership as they have such a wealth of knowledge, experience, and advice for our members.

“Sustainability is becoming ever more important for all businesses and they need support to navigate how best they can reduce their carbon footprint and help protect the planet.”

Climate Action North also runs the award-winning Wear and Tees Action for Rivers initiative, which works with companies, marine safety partners Swiftwater Solutions and Impact Recycling, on clean-up activities on the beach, on the water, on mudflats and on rocks with all the collected plastic being repurposed and reprocessed.

Among its other initiatives is Pollinator Parks, which is rewilding outdoor business spaces including Dalton Park shopping centre and the North East Business and Innovation Centre by creating mini meadows and gardens to build much needed connectivity and green spaces for wildlife and wellbeing of communities.

Sharon continued: “The Chamber brings together many amazing businesses in the region and we look forward to helping them on their net zero journeys.”

 

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