Business 19 November 2014

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GREEN WEEKTAKEOVER

BRISTOL 2015

Welcome to the Business takeover by GreenWeek. Turn inside for more...

GREEN WEEK TAKEOVER

BRISTOL 2015

Welcome to the Business takeover by Green Week. Turn inside for more...

‘WE MADE MISTAKES’

Bristol 2015 chairman speaksfrankly about progress – p2&3

192014NOV

SCALING UP

Textiles firm boss on challengesof winning that big order – p9

TRADE TALK

What’s TTIP really about andwhy it matters to you – page 10

Your business guide to Bristol 2015How to:

- Take the commercial opportunities- Become more sustainable

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2 Wednesday, November 19, 2014 3Wednesday, November 19, 2014 www.bristolpost.co.uk��www.bristolpost.co.uk��

The Big Interview

Bristol is countingdown the days until itbecomes EuropeanGreen Capital. GavinThompson asks AndrewGarrad, the chairman ofBristol 2015 company,what is being done toengage the businesscommunity

2015 is a big year for Bristol.It’s the year the city holds thetitle of European Green Cap-ital. That’s a huge opportun-ity but most local business

don’t really know what it’s about letalone how it could relate to them.It’s a problem the chairman of Bris-

tol 2015 – the company created todeliver a programme of eventsaround the title – is willing to admit.And one the organisation is now tak-ing steps to address.Andrew Garrad, founder of green

energy consultancy Garrad Hussan,

WE AIM TO EMBRACE LOCAL PEOPLE AND BUSINESSES

is talking a more hands-on role whilechief executive Kris Donaldson – whopreviously ran Liverpool’s widely ac-claimed European Capital of Cultureprogramme – has been ditched.“Kris had done a good job getting

the whole thing up and running, hegot in a quite a lot of cash and in-spired the whole thing,” said And-rew.“Butwe decidedhe probablywasn’t

the right guy for bringing it intooperation. So we made a change.“Nicola (Yates, Bristol City Council

director) is now in charge of thebusiness organisation – money, con-tracts and so on – and I’ve stepped into a more active role. Before I waschairman, now I’mmore of executivechairman.”Andrew said he hoped to bring

something that had been lackingfrom the organisation up to now.“An element which has been miss-

ing has been our engagement as Bris-tol 2015 company at a local level,” hesaid. “There’s been a lot of concen-tration on planning big events, thebig political stuff, getting the Gov-ernment money and corporate spon-sorship, which has been donesuccessfully..“I bringwithme the fact that I am a

green Bristol businessman. I concedethat’s an important element we have

to address.We’ve established the coreprogramme.“We’ve got an operational website

and released the logo and combin-ation those two things is a symbol wecan start to embrace local people andlocal businesses at a bigger level.”Andrew said that hewas “making a

proper effort” to get us involved in theBristol business scene.“A reasonable criticism would be

that we have concentrated on thebigger corporate scene and events,”he said. “Wearenowactivelyworkingon more local engagement.”Much of the Green Capital pro-

gramme is community rather thanbusiness led.“Bristol has a strong grassroots

greenmovement and those people arepart of why we won the bid,” saidAndrew. About £2 million of the£7 million of government money isgoing into grants, split betweenneighbourhood projects, small grants

and strategic grants.Andrew said: “We aim to include as

much of Bristol as possible. What weare trying to do is quite ambitiousand sometimes that can be ourbiggest inspiration sometimes aproblem.”Andrew believes there

are two main businessstrands to the year, oneto help and nudgeeveryone else to be-come more sustain-able and the other topromote and celebratethe city’s green indus-tries.He said: “The first thing

we are looking at with businessesis the Go Green initiative. The idea isthat every business can join that andthat is a way to take some greensteps.“We absolutely need to be engaged

with Bristol’s green businesses, but

we also want to engage with theothers. A small green step by allbusinesses in Bristol would be a hugestep for us as a city.“The second thing is to putBristol’sgreen business on themap. Part of

the reason we won the awardis the businesses we alreadyhave. People involved ingreen business need to beexposed to a bigger pub-lic and be celebrated.”He recalls listening to

a presentation aboutBristol University (pic-

tured) once where it wasdescribed as being “world

famous in the UK”.“I think that applies to (green)

business here,” said Andrew. “I thinkwe are probably the leader in the UK,but we don’t make enough fuss of itand outside theUKour profile isn’t ashigh. Part of what we are trying to dois address that.”

The organisation will be hosting anumber of events to raise the profileof sustainable businesses in the city,including a green technology expohighlighting how the thriving techindustry can and is having an im-pact.There will also be a summit for

business leaders to discuss the sus-tainable agenda, particularly with aview to making cities greener.“Part of it is to say ‘look at what

we’ve got in Bristol, come here forthese services or ideas’,” said And-rew. “It also going back to the idea ofusing Bristol as a laboratory forchange. There are a lot of businesslooking at the idea of smart cities andthis gives Bristol the chance to play aleading role.”The Bristol 2015 team has to meas-

ure the success or failure carried outthrough the year and the team isworking with KPMG, one of the mainsponsors, to that end.

ONE of the goals of Bristol’s EuropeanGreen Capital status is to help thecity’s green technology companies“do more business”. The Bristol 2015team is organising a year-long In-

ternational Green Tech Festival in the city tobring the world’s attention to the astonishingwork and ideas already happening.The events will also encourage more innov-

ation – part of what mayor George Fergusoncalls Bristol being a “laboratory for change”.The festival will have three main strands:

digital green tech; green tech innovation; andgreen tech in the city.The programme will include a digital chal-

lenge inviting teams to design software to solveenvironmental problems.Therewill be aVentureFest event to showcase

the best in green technology innovation.And a business summit to discuss how cities

can work with businesses to become greener.Sonny Masero, pictured below, International

GreenTech Festival adviser, said: “The festivalis a programme to help businesses find moneyto support what they are doing around greentechnology.“That could be grant funding, investors or

support from university.”He said the Bristol 2015 team designed the

Year-long festival aiming toput city tech on world stage

“Part of the deal of being GreenCapital is we have to measure whatwe have done,” said Andrew. “Onebecause we are spending money butmore to allow what we’ve done to beduplicated – or avoided – in otherEuropean cities.”Andrew thinks the involvement of

a big company like KPMG shows howthe green movement is evolving.“It’s very interesting to see them

involved in thiswhole thing,” he said.“If you are a deep green activist youmight be suspicious of corporate in-volvement but to me it’s a very in-teresting signal, it signals a shift inattitude towards green stuff.“It’s not just preaching about being

green but saying actually this is ahuge opportunity for newbusinesses.They want to learn from Bristol sothey can provide a service to othercities around Europe. By being in-volved in the Bristol Method, whichis what we are calling the measuring

Global spotlight

�� | �� ’� ��

Bristol: European Green Capital 2015

DIGITAL CHALLENGE

● The first element focuses the GreenCapital Digital Challenge, a hack weekendchallenge where 10 teams of developerswill be asked to create some software – agame, app or website – that helps solveone of a choice of environmentalchallenges.The tests will be around themes of

energy, transport, food, nature andresources but will be set with input frombusiness and experts to identity a problemthat needs solving.From that weekend, held at the

Watershed February 6-8, six finalists willbe chosen. They will have two months todevelop their ideas before putting them toa panel of expert judges.Prizes of up to £50,000 will be on offer,

as well as the prestige and exposure. Apeople’s choice award will be chosen bydelegates at the International YouthConference taking place in the city on theday of the final. Teams can register up toJanuary 1 online at www.bristol2015.co.uk/digitalchallenge.

VENTUREFEST RETURNS

● The centrepiece of the green techinnovation programme will be the return ofVentureFest. The festival of technology willhave a green tinge but organisers are keento involve technology companies not justthose which think of themselves as green.“We’re refreshing the format,” said

organiser Sonny Masero. “Talking moreabout innovation as well as the venturing.”He said the organisers want to engagewith big companies around the city toshowcase innovation within their supplychains.“We are focusing on strong sectors for

Bristol and Bath, such as high techmanufacturing, advanced engineering,creative and digital and looking at howgreen tech is embedded in thosecompanies,” said Sonny.“We want to appeal to tech companies

not just green companies. They might notcall themselves a green company but theyhave technology that has anenvironmental benefit.”The team is working with Invest Bristol

and Bath to bring in potential investors forthe companies which will be exhibiting, ina showcase of local innovation.The event will be a partnership with

Government funding body InnovateUK,Invest Bristol and Bath and Business Westand is likely to take place in April or May.

BUSINESS SUMMIT

● The final strand of the festival - greentech in the city - will centre around abusiness summit later in the year.The Bristol 2015 team is working with

sponsor KPMG to put together a report onhow cities are investing in technology tobecome greener and how are they supportbusiness innovation.The report will bring together the views

of business and city leaders from aroundthe world in a white paper which will bediscussed at a business summit in the city,where business leaders will look to findsolutions to some of the problems. Thereport will then be presented to the WorldClimate Change Summit later in the year.

A reasonable criticismwould be that we haveconcentrated on thebigger corporate sceneand events. We are nowactively working on morelocal engagement.”

“

�� Assistant Editor (Business)[email protected]

The events will beconcentrated in Bristol but weare reaching out to businessesacross the West of England. Wewant to shine a light on the goodthings that happen in the region.It still amazes me when I go toLondon how little they knowabout what great things we aredoing here.”

“

process, they can then use it else-where.”He said his own business Garrad

Hussan had gone through a similarevolution when it became DNV GL.“My business has been through

this sort of process,” he said. “Westarted off as an ideological single-in-terest renewables business. It wasquite smocks and sandals 30 yearsago. Now our clients include Siemensand E.On. Two people out of 400 leftwhenwe sold our company to a biggerone but most thought ‘actually this iswhat we’ve been waiting for’. I’vebeen working for 30 years to get re-newable to the same table as otherenergy forms.”Andrew believes Bristol is well

placed to become even stronger ingreen industries. It has a good supplyof talent from strong universities anda place where people like to stay.So what will success look like come

January 1, 2016? Apart from a nice liedown.“I hope that in 2015 we will take

some significant steps towards doingsomethingwith ourhuge tidal energyresource,” he said.“Most of themajor tidal players are

sitting here in Bristol. We’re notgoing to build any tidal structures in2015 but I hope we take some serioussteps towards something.“If we choose wisely with the

grants we are giving out, they willhave lasting effect on communities.“But for me, if we got to the point

where people stop thinking aboutbeing green and started thinkinggreen was normal, that would be thebest thing.”Andrew has made a few changes to

his own life. “I’ve started cycling,” hesaid. “It’s a trivial thing but if a largechunk of people did that it wouldmake a huge difference. I’m not look-ing for a seismic shift but I am look-ing for incremental change in acultural sense.”And for business?Andrew said: “Will we have got any

new investment in Bristol in 2015?Probably not a lot during 2015 but ifwe’ve got businesses from the outsidethinking, ‘we’re going to come to theUK so we’ll come to Bristol’, thatwould be a major plus.“We may well have got extra ex-

ports for existing businesses en-abling those businesses to grow.“And I hopewewill have put Bristol

on the map so if people and busi-nesses are thinking of green, theythink Bristol and maybe if they arecoming to UK they’ll come to Bristolnot London and even better come toBristol for their European headquar-ters.”Summing up, Andrew said: “You

can look at climate change as anenvironmental disaster, which ofcourse it is, but that doesn’t inspirepeople to do much.“Or you can look at it as an op-

portunity to change your life anddevelop new businesses. I recentlyhad to fill in a questionnaire ‘how isyour business dealing with climatechange’ and I put rather guiltily thatit’s an opportunity for us. Yes this isserous stuff but for us in Bristol thereis a big opportunity to build ourbusinesses around the world.”

programme to reach a broad range of busi-nesses across the Bristol area.“We’ll be reaching out to businesses to take

part,” he said.“The events will be concentrated in the city of

Bristol but we are reaching out to businessesacross the West of England.“We want to shine a light on the good things

that happen in the region.“It still amazes me when I

go to London how little theyknow about what greatthings we are doinghere.”Sonny said the

year-long festival wasnot just a showcase buthad to achieve resultstoo.“This needs to be

done with a purpose,” hesaid. “Enabling thosebusinesses to domore busi-ness has got to be an out-come.“That’s why we arelooking to see whatgrant funding peoplecan access, lookingto bring investors in,showcasing thework being done.”

● Chairmanof Bristol2015 – thecompanycreated todeliver aprogrammeof eventsaround thetitle – AndrewGarrad

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The Big Interview

Bristol is countingdown the days until itbecomes EuropeanGreen Capital. GavinThompson asks AndrewGarrad, the chairman ofBristol 2015 company,what is being done toengage the businesscommunity

2015 is a big year for Bristol.It’s the year the city holds thetitle of European Green Cap-ital. That’s a huge opportun-ity but most local business

don’t really know what it’s about letalone how it could relate to them.It’s a problem the chairman of Bris-

tol 2015 – the company created todeliver a programme of eventsaround the title – is willing to admit.And one the organisation is now tak-ing steps to address.Andrew Garrad, founder of green

energy consultancy Garrad Hussan,

WE AIM TO EMBRACE LOCAL PEOPLE AND BUSINESSES

is talking a more hands-on role whilechief executive Kris Donaldson – whopreviously ran Liverpool’s widely ac-claimed European Capital of Cultureprogramme – has been ditched.“Kris had done a good job getting

the whole thing up and running, hegot in a quite a lot of cash and in-spired the whole thing,” said And-rew.“Butwe decidedhe probablywasn’t

the right guy for bringing it intooperation. So we made a change.“Nicola (Yates, Bristol City Council

director) is now in charge of thebusiness organisation – money, con-tracts and so on – and I’ve stepped into a more active role. Before I waschairman, now I’mmore of executivechairman.”Andrew said he hoped to bring

something that had been lackingfrom the organisation up to now.“An element which has been miss-

ing has been our engagement as Bris-tol 2015 company at a local level,” hesaid. “There’s been a lot of concen-tration on planning big events, thebig political stuff, getting the Gov-ernment money and corporate spon-sorship, which has been donesuccessfully..“I bringwithme the fact that I am a

green Bristol businessman. I concedethat’s an important element we have

to address.We’ve established the coreprogramme.“We’ve got an operational website

and released the logo and combin-ation those two things is a symbol wecan start to embrace local people andlocal businesses at a bigger level.”Andrew said that hewas “making a

proper effort” to get us involved in theBristol business scene.“A reasonable criticism would be

that we have concentrated on thebigger corporate scene and events,”he said. “Wearenowactivelyworkingon more local engagement.”Much of the Green Capital pro-

gramme is community rather thanbusiness led.“Bristol has a strong grassroots

greenmovement and those people arepart of why we won the bid,” saidAndrew. About £2 million of the£7 million of government money isgoing into grants, split betweenneighbourhood projects, small grants

and strategic grants.Andrew said: “We aim to include as

much of Bristol as possible. What weare trying to do is quite ambitiousand sometimes that can be ourbiggest inspiration sometimes aproblem.”Andrew believes there

are two main businessstrands to the year, oneto help and nudgeeveryone else to be-come more sustain-able and the other topromote and celebratethe city’s green indus-tries.He said: “The first thing

we are looking at with businessesis the Go Green initiative. The idea isthat every business can join that andthat is a way to take some greensteps.“We absolutely need to be engaged

with Bristol’s green businesses, but

we also want to engage with theothers. A small green step by allbusinesses in Bristol would be a hugestep for us as a city.“The second thing is to putBristol’sgreen business on themap. Part of

the reason we won the awardis the businesses we alreadyhave. People involved ingreen business need to beexposed to a bigger pub-lic and be celebrated.”He recalls listening to

a presentation aboutBristol University (pic-

tured) once where it wasdescribed as being “world

famous in the UK”.“I think that applies to (green)

business here,” said Andrew. “I thinkwe are probably the leader in the UK,but we don’t make enough fuss of itand outside theUKour profile isn’t ashigh. Part of what we are trying to dois address that.”

The organisation will be hosting anumber of events to raise the profileof sustainable businesses in the city,including a green technology expohighlighting how the thriving techindustry can and is having an im-pact.There will also be a summit for

business leaders to discuss the sus-tainable agenda, particularly with aview to making cities greener.“Part of it is to say ‘look at what

we’ve got in Bristol, come here forthese services or ideas’,” said And-rew. “It also going back to the idea ofusing Bristol as a laboratory forchange. There are a lot of businesslooking at the idea of smart cities andthis gives Bristol the chance to play aleading role.”The Bristol 2015 team has to meas-

ure the success or failure carried outthrough the year and the team isworking with KPMG, one of the mainsponsors, to that end.

ONE of the goals of Bristol’s EuropeanGreen Capital status is to help thecity’s green technology companies“do more business”. The Bristol 2015team is organising a year-long In-

ternational Green Tech Festival in the city tobring the world’s attention to the astonishingwork and ideas already happening.The events will also encourage more innov-

ation – part of what mayor George Fergusoncalls Bristol being a “laboratory for change”.The festival will have three main strands:

digital green tech; green tech innovation; andgreen tech in the city.The programme will include a digital chal-

lenge inviting teams to design software to solveenvironmental problems.Therewill be aVentureFest event to showcase

the best in green technology innovation.And a business summit to discuss how cities

can work with businesses to become greener.Sonny Masero, pictured below, International

GreenTech Festival adviser, said: “The festivalis a programme to help businesses find moneyto support what they are doing around greentechnology.“That could be grant funding, investors or

support from university.”He said the Bristol 2015 team designed the

Year-long festival aiming toput city tech on world stage

“Part of the deal of being GreenCapital is we have to measure whatwe have done,” said Andrew. “Onebecause we are spending money butmore to allow what we’ve done to beduplicated – or avoided – in otherEuropean cities.”Andrew thinks the involvement of

a big company like KPMG shows howthe green movement is evolving.“It’s very interesting to see them

involved in thiswhole thing,” he said.“If you are a deep green activist youmight be suspicious of corporate in-volvement but to me it’s a very in-teresting signal, it signals a shift inattitude towards green stuff.“It’s not just preaching about being

green but saying actually this is ahuge opportunity for newbusinesses.They want to learn from Bristol sothey can provide a service to othercities around Europe. By being in-volved in the Bristol Method, whichis what we are calling the measuring

Global spotlight

�� | �� ’� ��


DIGITAL CHALLENGE

● The first element focuses the GreenCapital Digital Challenge, a hack weekendchallenge where 10 teams of developerswill be asked to create some software – agame, app or website – that helps solveone of a choice of environmentalchallenges.The tests will be around themes of

energy, transport, food, nature andresources but will be set with input frombusiness and experts to identity a problemthat needs solving.From that weekend, held at the

Watershed February 6-8, six finalists willbe chosen. They will have two months todevelop their ideas before putting them toa panel of expert judges.Prizes of up to £50,000 will be on offer,

as well as the prestige and exposure. Apeople’s choice award will be chosen bydelegates at the International YouthConference taking place in the city on theday of the final. Teams can register up toJanuary 1 online at www.bristol2015.co.uk/digitalchallenge.

VENTUREFEST RETURNS

● The centrepiece of the green techinnovation programme will be the return ofVentureFest. The festival of technology willhave a green tinge but organisers are keento involve technology companies not justthose which think of themselves as green.“We’re refreshing the format,” said

organiser Sonny Masero. “Talking moreabout innovation as well as the venturing.”He said the organisers want to engagewith big companies around the city toshowcase innovation within their supplychains.“We are focusing on strong sectors for

Bristol and Bath, such as high techmanufacturing, advanced engineering,creative and digital and looking at howgreen tech is embedded in thosecompanies,” said Sonny.“We want to appeal to tech companies

not just green companies. They might notcall themselves a green company but theyhave technology that has anenvironmental benefit.”The team is working with Invest Bristol

and Bath to bring in potential investors forthe companies which will be exhibiting, ina showcase of local innovation.The event will be a partnership with

Government funding body InnovateUK,Invest Bristol and Bath and Business Westand is likely to take place in April or May.

BUSINESS SUMMIT

● The final strand of the festival - greentech in the city - will centre around abusiness summit later in the year.The Bristol 2015 team is working with

sponsor KPMG to put together a report onhow cities are investing in technology tobecome greener and how are they supportbusiness innovation.The report will bring together the views

of business and city leaders from aroundthe world in a white paper which will bediscussed at a business summit in the city,where business leaders will look to findsolutions to some of the problems. Thereport will then be presented to the WorldClimate Change Summit later in the year.

A reasonable criticismwould be that we haveconcentrated on thebigger corporate sceneand events. We are nowactively working on morelocal engagement.”

“

�� Assistant Editor (Business)[email protected]

The events will beconcentrated in Bristol but weare reaching out to businessesacross the West of England. Wewant to shine a light on the goodthings that happen in the region.It still amazes me when I go toLondon how little they knowabout what great things we aredoing here.”

“

process, they can then use it else-where.”He said his own business Garrad

Hussan had gone through a similarevolution when it became DNV GL.“My business has been through

this sort of process,” he said. “Westarted off as an ideological single-in-terest renewables business. It wasquite smocks and sandals 30 yearsago. Now our clients include Siemensand E.On. Two people out of 400 leftwhenwe sold our company to a biggerone but most thought ‘actually this iswhat we’ve been waiting for’. I’vebeen working for 30 years to get re-newable to the same table as otherenergy forms.”Andrew believes Bristol is well

placed to become even stronger ingreen industries. It has a good supplyof talent from strong universities anda place where people like to stay.So what will success look like come

January 1, 2016? Apart from a nice liedown.“I hope that in 2015 we will take

some significant steps towards doingsomethingwith ourhuge tidal energyresource,” he said.“Most of themajor tidal players are

sitting here in Bristol. We’re notgoing to build any tidal structures in2015 but I hope we take some serioussteps towards something.“If we choose wisely with the

grants we are giving out, they willhave lasting effect on communities.“But for me, if we got to the point

where people stop thinking aboutbeing green and started thinkinggreen was normal, that would be thebest thing.”Andrew has made a few changes to

his own life. “I’ve started cycling,” hesaid. “It’s a trivial thing but if a largechunk of people did that it wouldmake a huge difference. I’m not look-ing for a seismic shift but I am look-ing for incremental change in acultural sense.”And for business?Andrew said: “Will we have got any

new investment in Bristol in 2015?Probably not a lot during 2015 but ifwe’ve got businesses from the outsidethinking, ‘we’re going to come to theUK so we’ll come to Bristol’, thatwould be a major plus.“We may well have got extra ex-

ports for existing businesses en-abling those businesses to grow.“And I hopewewill have put Bristol

on the map so if people and busi-nesses are thinking of green, theythink Bristol and maybe if they arecoming to UK they’ll come to Bristolnot London and even better come toBristol for their European headquar-ters.”Summing up, Andrew said: “You

can look at climate change as anenvironmental disaster, which ofcourse it is, but that doesn’t inspirepeople to do much.“Or you can look at it as an op-

portunity to change your life anddevelop new businesses. I recentlyhad to fill in a questionnaire ‘how isyour business dealing with climatechange’ and I put rather guiltily thatit’s an opportunity for us. Yes this isserous stuff but for us in Bristol thereis a big opportunity to build ourbusinesses around the world.”

programme to reach a broad range of busi-nesses across the Bristol area.“We’ll be reaching out to businesses to take

part,” he said.“The events will be concentrated in the city of

Bristol but we are reaching out to businessesacross the West of England.“We want to shine a light on the good things

that happen in the region.“It still amazes me when I

go to London how little theyknow about what greatthings we are doinghere.”Sonny said the

year-long festival wasnot just a showcase buthad to achieve resultstoo.“This needs to be

done with a purpose,” hesaid. “Enabling thosebusinesses to domore busi-ness has got to be an out-come.“That’s why we arelooking to see whatgrant funding peoplecan access, lookingto bring investors in,showcasing thework being done.”

● Chairmanof Bristol2015 – thecompanycreated todeliver aprogrammeof eventsaround thetitle – AndrewGarrad

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Support Sponsors get on board tohelp make city a greener place

WHEN it comes to Bris-tol’s green credentials,congestion issomething of an ele-phant in the room.

Some have questioned how a citywith such traffic problems can begiven the accolade in the first place.However while Bristol earned the

title partly from its green strengths,another element of the mantle is howit improves on its weaknesses.Perhaps that’swhyFirstGroupwas

attracted to become a major sponsorof Bristol 2015. The company verymuch hopes to be part of the solu-tion.Tim O’Toole, chief executive of

FirstGroup, which operates trainsand buses in Bristol, said: “As part ofthis partnership we will work tomake Bristol a test-bed for sustain-able transport innovation bringingour mix of global expertise and localknowledge with the city’s commit-ment to find sustainable solutions tothe challenges of the increasinglycongested world in which we live.”Over the last couple of years, First

has invested £6million in buying newbuses and refurbishing old ones inthe Bristol area. The 31 new busesproduce lower emissions, as well asless noise and are fitted with LEDlighting.The firm has been talking to the

city council about extending smart

ticketing across bus and rail.Through its rail arm, First runs the

rail franchise that takes passengersfrom Bristol into London.The line is being electrified, which

will not just cut journey times to thecapital by about 20 minutes but alsomake it greener too. Electric trainsemit 25-30 per cent less carbon thandiesel and the emissions which areproduced are not along the train linesso they don’t affect air quality along

the routes. They have room for moreseats too.Improvements are also planned for

Bristol’s suburban rail network aspart of the franchise when it is re-newed and First is providing tech-nical support for the so-calledMetroWest scheme.The project will see the Portishead

line reopened, which should takelarge numbers of commuters out ofthe car and onto public transport.

THINK green and construction maynot be the first sector that comes tomind. But Skanska is working tochange that, and not just throughbecoming a sponsor of Bristol 2015.The firm, founded in Sweden, has

taken root in the Bristol area.TerryElphick, right, managing dir-

ector, SkanskaUK, said: “Bristol is anoutstanding green city and Skanskais known as one of the greenest com-panies in the UK – and the world.Supporting Bristol as the EuropeanGreen Capital 2015 is a natural fit forus.“We’ve been building and investing

in sustainable buildings and infra-structure in Bristol for many years,bringing our green expertise and val-ues to the city in numerous ways.”Those who work in the city centre

may have seen its BREEAM Excel-lent-rated office development at 66Queen Square rising from theground.Skanska’s reach goes much

further. It is helping Bristolto tackle its shortage ofschool places, by extend-ing andbuildingdozensof primary schools.The firm is also car-

rying out work on themotorways and majorroads on behalf of theHighways Agency.Such work gives the

company a strong founda-tion from which to promote asustainable agenda.Chris Hayes, sustainability oper-

ations director, SkanskaUK, said that

even in the tight time constraints ofschool projects, where the work oftenhas to be done in the summer hol-idays, sustainability is always a pri-ority.

“People often misuse theword sustainable and thinkit’s just about wind tur-bines and solar panels,”he said. “It’s not.”Chris, right, explained

that the firm strives toexceed regulatory com-pliance, as making build-ings more energy efficientis the starting point: “We

also focus on building usersand how healthy a working or

learning environment can be, includ-ing natural light and ventilation andthe use of sustainable materials

‘Sustainability is more than just wind turbines and solar panels’

‘You can benefitfrommakingeco investment’● BEING more sustainable is aboutgood business sense as well asdoing the right thing.Ben Wielgus, associate director

sustainable strategy KPMG, said:“Most people think beingsustainable is a perhaps nice thingto do but don’t realise the businessbenefit.“My job is to show you that if you

invest in sustainability, it will giveyou a return.”By sponsoring Bristol 2015, the

firm will be looking to get thatmessage out to more businessowners, as well as helping its ownbottom line in the long run.“We really wanted to be involved

with Bristol 2015 because it allowsus to experiment and learn how todo something new,”said Ben.“If we help

Bristol,Bristolwill bethebaselinefor therest ofthe worldon how todo this. If wehave beeninvolved, other cities will engagewith us too.”Ben said there is “an awful lot of

noise” around sustainability and itbecomes even more complex whentaken to a city level.“Our first step is helping them

get through the noise andcomplexity,” he said.But while the growth of cities

such as Bristol presents bigchallenges, Ben believes it bringsopportunities too.“Any UK city has challenges

around energy and resources andwe know Bristol has challengesaround transport,” he said. “Asmore people move to cities it willincrease those challenges but alsobring new revenue to solve them.”And it’s those solutions that

Bristol and KPMG hope to find, orat least make headway towards, in2015.

A spokesman for First Great West-ern, which runs the rail franchise,said: “Developing solutions to thesetransport issues can’t be done by onebody. The local authorities can’t do iton their own, we can’t do it alone. Itneeds to be joined up.”He said the European Green Cap-

ital partnership was a “perfect cata-lyst” to develop some of thosepartnerships to work together tosolve issues such as congestion.

Skanska

KPMG

First Group

�� | �� ’� ��


Businesses havepledged millions ofpounds in support to theBristol 2015 team tomake the EuropeanGreen Capitalprogramme a success.Gavin Thompson talksto some of the firms todip into their pockets

which have a positive impact on theoccupants.“It’s not just about green buildings

but also about the right environ-ment,” he said. “It has to beappropriate.”The company spreads

the sustainability agendain practical ways, work-ing with its supplychain as well as edu-cating the younger gen-eration.“Children are natur-

ally inquisitive so a build-ing site in your playgroundis an opportunity to really en-gage with the local community,” saidChris.“Youwant to encourage future gen-

erations of construction industry

professionals, while educating peopleon the potential dangers of construc-tion sites too. Our teams regularlytalk at school assemblies to help the

children, teachers and supportstaff so that they feel com-fortable, andproud, to takeownership of theirschool.”The education mes-

sage can be relevant forthe business world too.For example, new reg-

ulations mean officebuildings have to meet

minimum energy efficiencystandards by 2018 and 25 per

cent of current stock doesn’t. Thismeans that there are a few businessesout there who might need to brushup.

linkedin.com/company/skanskayoutube.com/skanskauk

twitter.com/skanskaukplc

We’re proud to be supporting Bristolas European Green Capital for 2015,by delivering sustainable work,transport and learning solutions.Our goal is to deliver places that exceed expectations, enhancecommunities and inspire people.

How can we help you?

skanska.co.uk

● Bristol 2015 chairmanAndrew Garrad, BristolMayor George Ferguson,Phil Cotton from KPMGand FirstGroup chiefexecutive Tim O’Toole

●

EPB-

E01-

S34 5

EPB-E01-S3

Support Sponsors get on board tohelp make city a greener place

WHEN it comes to Bris-tol’s green credentials,congestion issomething of an ele-phant in the room.

Some have questioned how a citywith such traffic problems can begiven the accolade in the first place.However while Bristol earned the

title partly from its green strengths,another element of the mantle is howit improves on its weaknesses.Perhaps that’swhyFirstGroupwas

attracted to become a major sponsorof Bristol 2015. The company verymuch hopes to be part of the solu-tion.Tim O’Toole, chief executive of

FirstGroup, which operates trainsand buses in Bristol, said: “As part ofthis partnership we will work tomake Bristol a test-bed for sustain-able transport innovation bringingour mix of global expertise and localknowledge with the city’s commit-ment to find sustainable solutions tothe challenges of the increasinglycongested world in which we live.”Over the last couple of years, First

has invested £6million in buying newbuses and refurbishing old ones inthe Bristol area. The 31 new busesproduce lower emissions, as well asless noise and are fitted with LEDlighting.The firm has been talking to the

city council about extending smart

ticketing across bus and rail.Through its rail arm, First runs the

rail franchise that takes passengersfrom Bristol into London.The line is being electrified, which

will not just cut journey times to thecapital by about 20 minutes but alsomake it greener too. Electric trainsemit 25-30 per cent less carbon thandiesel and the emissions which areproduced are not along the train linesso they don’t affect air quality along

the routes. They have room for moreseats too.Improvements are also planned for

Bristol’s suburban rail network aspart of the franchise when it is re-newed and First is providing tech-nical support for the so-calledMetroWest scheme.The project will see the Portishead

line reopened, which should takelarge numbers of commuters out ofthe car and onto public transport.

THINK green and construction maynot be the first sector that comes tomind. But Skanska is working tochange that, and not just throughbecoming a sponsor of Bristol 2015.The firm, founded in Sweden, has

taken root in the Bristol area.TerryElphick, right, managing dir-

ector, SkanskaUK, said: “Bristol is anoutstanding green city and Skanskais known as one of the greenest com-panies in the UK – and the world.Supporting Bristol as the EuropeanGreen Capital 2015 is a natural fit forus.“We’ve been building and investing

in sustainable buildings and infra-structure in Bristol for many years,bringing our green expertise and val-ues to the city in numerous ways.”Those who work in the city centre

may have seen its BREEAM Excel-lent-rated office development at 66Queen Square rising from theground.Skanska’s reach goes much

further. It is helping Bristolto tackle its shortage ofschool places, by extend-ing andbuildingdozensof primary schools.The firm is also car-

rying out work on themotorways and majorroads on behalf of theHighways Agency.Such work gives the

company a strong founda-tion from which to promote asustainable agenda.Chris Hayes, sustainability oper-

ations director, SkanskaUK, said that

even in the tight time constraints ofschool projects, where the work oftenhas to be done in the summer hol-idays, sustainability is always a pri-ority.

“People often misuse theword sustainable and thinkit’s just about wind tur-bines and solar panels,”he said. “It’s not.”Chris, right, explained

that the firm strives toexceed regulatory com-pliance, as making build-ings more energy efficientis the starting point: “We

also focus on building usersand how healthy a working or

learning environment can be, includ-ing natural light and ventilation andthe use of sustainable materials

‘Sustainability is more than just wind turbines and solar panels’

‘You can benefitfrommakingeco investment’● BEING more sustainable is aboutgood business sense as well asdoing the right thing.Ben Wielgus, associate director

sustainable strategy KPMG, said:“Most people think beingsustainable is a perhaps nice thingto do but don’t realise the businessbenefit.“My job is to show you that if you

invest in sustainability, it will giveyou a return.”By sponsoring Bristol 2015, the

firm will be looking to get thatmessage out to more businessowners, as well as helping its ownbottom line in the long run.“We really wanted to be involved

with Bristol 2015 because it allowsus to experiment and learn how todo something new,”said Ben.“If we help

Bristol,Bristolwill bethebaselinefor therest ofthe worldon how todo this. If wehave beeninvolved, other cities will engagewith us too.”Ben said there is “an awful lot of

noise” around sustainability and itbecomes even more complex whentaken to a city level.“Our first step is helping them

get through the noise andcomplexity,” he said.But while the growth of cities

such as Bristol presents bigchallenges, Ben believes it bringsopportunities too.“Any UK city has challenges

around energy and resources andwe know Bristol has challengesaround transport,” he said. “Asmore people move to cities it willincrease those challenges but alsobring new revenue to solve them.”And it’s those solutions that

Bristol and KPMG hope to find, orat least make headway towards, in2015.

A spokesman for First Great West-ern, which runs the rail franchise,said: “Developing solutions to thesetransport issues can’t be done by onebody. The local authorities can’t do iton their own, we can’t do it alone. Itneeds to be joined up.”He said the European Green Cap-

ital partnership was a “perfect cata-lyst” to develop some of thosepartnerships to work together tosolve issues such as congestion.

Skanska

KPMG

First Group

�� | �� ’� ��


Businesses havepledged millions ofpounds in support to theBristol 2015 team tomake the EuropeanGreen Capitalprogramme a success.Gavin Thompson talksto some of the firms todip into their pockets

which have a positive impact on theoccupants.“It’s not just about green buildings

but also about the right environ-ment,” he said. “It has to beappropriate.”The company spreads

the sustainability agendain practical ways, work-ing with its supplychain as well as edu-cating the younger gen-eration.“Children are natur-

ally inquisitive so a build-ing site in your playgroundis an opportunity to really en-gage with the local community,” saidChris.“Youwant to encourage future gen-

erations of construction industry

professionals, while educating peopleon the potential dangers of construc-tion sites too. Our teams regularlytalk at school assemblies to help the

children, teachers and supportstaff so that they feel com-fortable, andproud, to takeownership of theirschool.”The education mes-

sage can be relevant forthe business world too.For example, new reg-

ulations mean officebuildings have to meet

minimum energy efficiencystandards by 2018 and 25 per

cent of current stock doesn’t. Thismeans that there are a few businessesout there who might need to brushup.

linkedin.com/company/skanskayoutube.com/skanskauk

twitter.com/skanskaukplc

We’re proud to be supporting Bristolas European Green Capital for 2015,by delivering sustainable work,transport and learning solutions.Our goal is to deliver places that exceed expectations, enhancecommunities and inspire people.

How can we help you?

skanska.co.uk

● Bristol 2015 chairmanAndrew Garrad, BristolMayor George Ferguson,Phil Cotton from KPMGand FirstGroup chiefexecutive Tim O’Toole

●

EPB-E01-S3

EPB-

E01-

S3


Bristol’s year as EuropeanGreen Capital is a chance forcompanies big and small toengage with the green agenda.Gavin Thompson talks tosome of the city’s businesseswhich are already going greenand finds out how others canfollow

SMALL and medium sized busi-nesses will be encouraged toGo Green with support fromthe Bristol 2015 team. Andthose which do so will be able

to shout about their successes andwinan official mark of approval.The Go Green project is being run

jointly by LowCarbon SouthWest andBusiness West to make it as easy aspossible for firms to engage, regard-less of size, sector or track record.Amy Robinson, director of Low Car-

bon South West, said SMEs wereamong the best placed to benefit.“Lots of large companies have their

own systems and staff in place where-

Gregor Heating

Vans upgrade ‘has saved on fueland given us competitive edge’

Filwood GreenBusiness Park

Flagship project to create jobs

Gregg LatchamsEco team briefed to bring new approach at law firm

MAKING IT EASIER AND MORE REWARDING FOR YOUR FIRM TO GO GREEN

�� | �� ’� ��


● LOCAL suppliers are signing upto help Bristol City Council warmup people’s homes and make themmore energy efficient.Homeowners can get up to

£4,000 towards loft insulation,double glazing, solid and cavitywalls, new boilers and renewableenergy systems.Faith Parker, HR manager at BR

Hodgson Ltd, which employs 45people at its base in Wick, saidthey heard about the schemethrough a ‘meet the buyer’ event

earlier this year. Warm Up Bristol,sounded like an excellentopportunity which would allow thecompany to expand its externalwall insulation business,” she said.“After submitting our expression

of interest, we met with the teamto discuss the qualification criteria.It was established that we met allthe requirements so we thenentered into a service agreement.“Warm Up Bristol is one of the

most ambitious energy efficiencyinitiatives in the country - the

target is to fit 30,000 homeimprovement measures in the nextfour years. Due to the scale of thescheme we’re anticipating hugebenefits for our business as theprogramme gets under way.“The scheme is designed to help

individuals reduce their energybills, but the benefits will also befelt by the city’s economy becauseit’ll create more jobs and generatework for local businesses like us.“We’re anticipating a high level

of uptake.”

Scheme heating up homes with greater efficiency

as smaller companies often can’t man-age that,” she said.“We’ve devised a scheme which we

hope will enable us to engage withwhole host of businesses inBristol andacross the West of England.”She said the programme would run

beyond Bristol’s time as Europeangreen capital, for three years, andwould hopefully become self fundingin future.It is aimed at all businesses, in-

cluding charities and social enter-prises, which want to do more to begreen and sustainable.“We want it to work from small

micro companies and start-ups up-wards,” she said. “From businesseswhich are already quite green to busi-nesses forwhom this agendahas neverbeen something they’ve had time orinclination to focus on.“We hope any small business –

hairdresser, greengrocer, bookshop –can get involved.“They might be interested from a

financial point of view, looking at theirenergy bills and wanting to becomemore efficient, or it might be someonewho really wants to be greener butdoesn’t know where to start.”The goal is to encourage and cel-

ebrate, not to admonish.Amy said: “I am an SME, I know

what it’s like to run when you are

trying really hard to get everythingdone in the day – a lot of this can fall bythe way side. This isn’t about waggingfingers, it’s about making it as ac-cessible, interesting and rewarding tobusinesses as we can.”Amy said there is already a lot of

advice out there, so the Go Greenproject will pull it all together.“Go Green is going to be one front

door for helping them to access all ofthe advice and resource that’s alreadyavailable,” she said.“Bristol is incredibly rich in terms

of organisations and activities thatcan help. Some of them are publicorganisations, some private, lots of

third sector. We want to help busi-nesses access those opportunities.”Low Carbon South West promotes

the green services sector, so the pro-gramme has the added benefit of beingable to signpost other businesses tothose service providers, supportingthe green services economy,The programme will focus on five

areas:● Travel and transport● Energy and efficiency● Happy and healthy● Resilience and business planning● Sustainable sourcingAmy said: “It might be about con-

sultancy and getting advice on the

fabric of their building if it’s veryenergy inefficient or a funding streamthat would enable them to get a grantfor a new boiler, or advice on how tohave a beehive or get showers installedto encourage people to cycle towork ortraining to help staff work remotely.“The idea is that all of the advice is

free for the businesses to access.“They can dip their toe and have a

look around. Once they become part ofthe programme their company ap-pears on our website so we can showsuccess growing.“And people will be able to go to the

website and seewho has signed up anduse that to inform their purchasing

decisions.She added: “We want to celebrate all

the companies which are taking thison.”There will be three levels of in-

volvement: “Say it” means a firm hassaid it will get involved. “Do it” wherethey are actually taking steps. Andfinally “Prove it”, which will be abadge for companies thatwant to showwhat they have achieved. This will beaccredited with a fee to pay for theongoing running of the scheme.The programme will be launched in

December but for now firms can ex-press an interest online at gogreen-business.co.uk.

● A NEW green business parkwill help create jobs and providea home to several small andmedium sized companies.Filwood Green Business Park

is the only development of itstype in the South West to bebuilt to the leading industryBREEAM Outstandingenvironmental and sustainabilitystandards.It is a flagship project for

Bristol’s year as European GreenCapital in 2015.The park has 40,000 square

feet of workshops and officespace and will hopefully lead tothe creation of 350 jobs, helpingto regenerate that part of thecity.It is an £11.7 million

investment in South Bristol,funded by the city council,European Regional

Development Fund and moneyfrom the Government’s RegionalGrowth Fund channelledthrough the West of EnglandLocal Enterprise Partnership.The park is being built by

Bristol-based MidasConstruction and will be held upas an example of sustainablebuilding.The firm recently invited

Women in Property, a forum forwomen in the construction andproperty sector, to tour the siteand see the work forthemselves.Jamie Harwood, Midas’

operational director for theproject, said: “We weredelighted to welcome membersof WiP to see the work going onto create this exciting newbusiness park for Bristol, as wellenabling them to hear moreabout the numerous ways weare employingenvironmentally-friendlyapproaches in the build.”

● IF you think your office really can’tdo without all that paper, take a lookat local solicitors Gregg Latchams.The Queen Square-based firm has

become a green beacon in recentyears, being named CarbonChampion last year after reducing itsenergy use and greenhouseemissions by 27 per cent.It was also the winner of the Bristol

Law Society Legal Sector Allianceaward for EnvironmentalResponsibility in 2011 and 2012.To achieve these accolades, the

firm formed a green team to drivethrough a change in approach insidethe business.Measures such as ensuring office

space is used more efficiently,setting double sided printing as thedefault option, introducing twinmonitors, and recycling 95 per centof all firm waste all made acontribution.

The firm has become largely paperfree – except when needed for legalwork. It stores all its files digitally ontwo slim servers, designed to usereduced amounts of electricity andgive out less heat so not putting toomuch strain on the air conditioning.Mike Gupwell, pictured, from the

firm’s Green Group, said: “When wedecided to commit to the West ofEngland Carbon Challenge we werenot sure how or whether we wouldachieve the 10 per cent reductiontarget. But I am delighted that theenergy saving message has been soenthusiastically adopted.”

● SPENDING £15,000 installingvehicle management systems onsome of its vans was a significantinvestment for Warmley-basedGregor Heating.But it has been money well spent,

according to boss Steve Gregor.The firm now has the system,

which allows it to track vehicles,installed on all its 55 vans.“It has more or less paid for itself

already in two years,” said Steve. Itmeans office staff can better assignjobs to engineers because they knowwhere they are and how far they arefrom other potential jobs.“There have been lots of benefits,

not just driving down fuel costs butimproving driver behaviour too.”Gregor Heating has been

accredited to the ISO14001

environmental managementstandard, Steve believes gives it acompetitive edge.“We have to have environmental

policies and we are independentlyaudited each year to prove we arecontinuously improving,” he said.The package is a sum or lots of

smaller parts, for example soak-upmats in the vans in case of anyspillage.“When it comes to tendering bids,

it’s massive,” said Steve.“If clients can see that we have the

right policies and take theenvironment seriously it ticks thatbox.“But it’s more than about box

ticking. For us it’s being moreefficient because that’s good forbusiness but also we are renewableenergy specialists, so theenvironmental agenda is close to ourhearts.” ● Steve Gregor spent £15,000 installing vehicle management systems

● Members of the South West branch of the Association of Women in Property being given a tour of the new Filwood Green Business Park by members of the Midas Construction team leading the project.

● FOR the founders of cafe andfood chain Friska, being greenmeans doing what feels good.Ed Brown and Griff Holland

founded the business with theslogan “Feel Good Food”.Griff said: “To feel good about

what we do, we need to do thingsresponsibly.”The firm, which started in Victoria

Street and recently announcedplans to expand into other cities,recently won the Best EthicalRestaurant title at the ObserverFood Awards. Griff, however,believes responsible is a better wordthan green or ethical.“If we talk about ‘green’, it’s a

choice people can easily opt out ofbut ‘responsibility’ puts the onus onus all to do it,” he said.“But it has to be more than a

badge. Responsibility has to be atthe core of what you do. If there’snot a real belief and drive then it’sunlikely it will work.”Friska has invested in this

responsible approach. It installed

convection hobs which use lessenergy, for example.“They are expensive to put in but

the costs are lower to run,” saidGriff. “And it makes it a nicer placeto work because less heat meansthe kitchen isn’t a sweat pit!”A zero-waste-to-landfill policy

helped Friska win the Business WestGreen Big Green Week GreenBusiness Award in 2013, with foodwaste composted, other materialsrecycled and anything else sent toan incinerator.The firm also uses 100 per cent

green energy in the stores where itcontrols the supplier, such asVictoria Street, using the green tarifffrom another local business, energysupplier Ovo.“Is it more expensive?” he says.

“Not really. With most of thesethings if you are committed and putthe effort in it doesn’t have to costmore.“We are a business so any ideas

have to make financial sense. Butthere haven’t been many good,responsible ideas that haven’t madesense.”

Good food served with thoughtFriska

● Friska founders Griff Holland and Ed Brown

We hope any smallbusiness – hairdresser,greengrocer, bookshop –can get involved. Theymight be interested froma financial point of view,looking at their energybills and wanting tobecome more efficient.”

“

EPB-E01-S3

EPB-

E01-

S3


Bristol’s year as EuropeanGreen Capital is a chance forcompanies big and small toengage with the green agenda.Gavin Thompson talks tosome of the city’s businesseswhich are already going greenand finds out how others canfollow

SMALL and medium sized busi-nesses will be encouraged toGo Green with support fromthe Bristol 2015 team. Andthose which do so will be able

to shout about their successes andwinan official mark of approval.The Go Green project is being run

jointly by LowCarbon SouthWest andBusiness West to make it as easy aspossible for firms to engage, regard-less of size, sector or track record.Amy Robinson, director of Low Car-

bon South West, said SMEs wereamong the best placed to benefit.“Lots of large companies have their

own systems and staff in place where-

Gregor Heating

Vans upgrade ‘has saved on fueland given us competitive edge’

Filwood GreenBusiness Park

Flagship project to create jobs

Gregg LatchamsEco team briefed to bring new approach at law firm

MAKING IT EASIER AND MORE REWARDING FOR YOUR FIRM TO GO GREEN

�� | �� ’� ��


● LOCAL suppliers are signing upto help Bristol City Council warmup people’s homes and make themmore energy efficient.Homeowners can get up to

£4,000 towards loft insulation,double glazing, solid and cavitywalls, new boilers and renewableenergy systems.Faith Parker, HR manager at BR

Hodgson Ltd, which employs 45people at its base in Wick, saidthey heard about the schemethrough a ‘meet the buyer’ event

earlier this year. Warm Up Bristol,sounded like an excellentopportunity which would allow thecompany to expand its externalwall insulation business,” she said.“After submitting our expression

of interest, we met with the teamto discuss the qualification criteria.It was established that we met allthe requirements so we thenentered into a service agreement.“Warm Up Bristol is one of the

most ambitious energy efficiencyinitiatives in the country - the

target is to fit 30,000 homeimprovement measures in the nextfour years. Due to the scale of thescheme we’re anticipating hugebenefits for our business as theprogramme gets under way.“The scheme is designed to help

individuals reduce their energybills, but the benefits will also befelt by the city’s economy becauseit’ll create more jobs and generatework for local businesses like us.“We’re anticipating a high level

of uptake.”

Scheme heating up homes with greater efficiency

as smaller companies often can’t man-age that,” she said.“We’ve devised a scheme which we

hope will enable us to engage withwhole host of businesses inBristol andacross the West of England.”She said the programme would run

beyond Bristol’s time as Europeangreen capital, for three years, andwould hopefully become self fundingin future.It is aimed at all businesses, in-

cluding charities and social enter-prises, which want to do more to begreen and sustainable.“We want it to work from small

micro companies and start-ups up-wards,” she said. “From businesseswhich are already quite green to busi-nesses forwhom this agendahas neverbeen something they’ve had time orinclination to focus on.“We hope any small business –

hairdresser, greengrocer, bookshop –can get involved.“They might be interested from a

financial point of view, looking at theirenergy bills and wanting to becomemore efficient, or it might be someonewho really wants to be greener butdoesn’t know where to start.”The goal is to encourage and cel-

ebrate, not to admonish.Amy said: “I am an SME, I know

what it’s like to run when you are

trying really hard to get everythingdone in the day – a lot of this can fall bythe way side. This isn’t about waggingfingers, it’s about making it as ac-cessible, interesting and rewarding tobusinesses as we can.”Amy said there is already a lot of

advice out there, so the Go Greenproject will pull it all together.“Go Green is going to be one front

door for helping them to access all ofthe advice and resource that’s alreadyavailable,” she said.“Bristol is incredibly rich in terms

of organisations and activities thatcan help. Some of them are publicorganisations, some private, lots of

third sector. We want to help busi-nesses access those opportunities.”Low Carbon South West promotes

the green services sector, so the pro-gramme has the added benefit of beingable to signpost other businesses tothose service providers, supportingthe green services economy,The programme will focus on five

areas:● Travel and transport● Energy and efficiency● Happy and healthy● Resilience and business planning● Sustainable sourcingAmy said: “It might be about con-

sultancy and getting advice on the

fabric of their building if it’s veryenergy inefficient or a funding streamthat would enable them to get a grantfor a new boiler, or advice on how tohave a beehive or get showers installedto encourage people to cycle towork ortraining to help staff work remotely.“The idea is that all of the advice is

free for the businesses to access.“They can dip their toe and have a

look around. Once they become part ofthe programme their company ap-pears on our website so we can showsuccess growing.“And people will be able to go to the

website and seewho has signed up anduse that to inform their purchasing

decisions.She added: “We want to celebrate all

the companies which are taking thison.”There will be three levels of in-

volvement: “Say it” means a firm hassaid it will get involved. “Do it” wherethey are actually taking steps. Andfinally “Prove it”, which will be abadge for companies thatwant to showwhat they have achieved. This will beaccredited with a fee to pay for theongoing running of the scheme.The programme will be launched in

December but for now firms can ex-press an interest online at gogreen-business.co.uk.

● A NEW green business parkwill help create jobs and providea home to several small andmedium sized companies.Filwood Green Business Park

is the only development of itstype in the South West to bebuilt to the leading industryBREEAM Outstandingenvironmental and sustainabilitystandards.It is a flagship project for

Bristol’s year as European GreenCapital in 2015.The park has 40,000 square

feet of workshops and officespace and will hopefully lead tothe creation of 350 jobs, helpingto regenerate that part of thecity.It is an £11.7 million

investment in South Bristol,funded by the city council,European Regional

Development Fund and moneyfrom the Government’s RegionalGrowth Fund channelledthrough the West of EnglandLocal Enterprise Partnership.The park is being built by

Bristol-based MidasConstruction and will be held upas an example of sustainablebuilding.The firm recently invited

Women in Property, a forum forwomen in the construction andproperty sector, to tour the siteand see the work forthemselves.Jamie Harwood, Midas’

operational director for theproject, said: “We weredelighted to welcome membersof WiP to see the work going onto create this exciting newbusiness park for Bristol, as wellenabling them to hear moreabout the numerous ways weare employingenvironmentally-friendlyapproaches in the build.”

● IF you think your office really can’tdo without all that paper, take a lookat local solicitors Gregg Latchams.The Queen Square-based firm has

become a green beacon in recentyears, being named CarbonChampion last year after reducing itsenergy use and greenhouseemissions by 27 per cent.It was also the winner of the Bristol

Law Society Legal Sector Allianceaward for EnvironmentalResponsibility in 2011 and 2012.To achieve these accolades, the

firm formed a green team to drivethrough a change in approach insidethe business.Measures such as ensuring office

space is used more efficiently,setting double sided printing as thedefault option, introducing twinmonitors, and recycling 95 per centof all firm waste all made acontribution.

The firm has become largely paperfree – except when needed for legalwork. It stores all its files digitally ontwo slim servers, designed to usereduced amounts of electricity andgive out less heat so not putting toomuch strain on the air conditioning.Mike Gupwell, pictured, from the

firm’s Green Group, said: “When wedecided to commit to the West ofEngland Carbon Challenge we werenot sure how or whether we wouldachieve the 10 per cent reductiontarget. But I am delighted that theenergy saving message has been soenthusiastically adopted.”

● SPENDING £15,000 installingvehicle management systems onsome of its vans was a significantinvestment for Warmley-basedGregor Heating.But it has been money well spent,

according to boss Steve Gregor.The firm now has the system,

which allows it to track vehicles,installed on all its 55 vans.“It has more or less paid for itself

already in two years,” said Steve. Itmeans office staff can better assignjobs to engineers because they knowwhere they are and how far they arefrom other potential jobs.“There have been lots of benefits,

not just driving down fuel costs butimproving driver behaviour too.”Gregor Heating has been

accredited to the ISO14001

environmental managementstandard, Steve believes gives it acompetitive edge.“We have to have environmental

policies and we are independentlyaudited each year to prove we arecontinuously improving,” he said.The package is a sum or lots of

smaller parts, for example soak-upmats in the vans in case of anyspillage.“When it comes to tendering bids,

it’s massive,” said Steve.“If clients can see that we have the

right policies and take theenvironment seriously it ticks thatbox.“But it’s more than about box

ticking. For us it’s being moreefficient because that’s good forbusiness but also we are renewableenergy specialists, so theenvironmental agenda is close to ourhearts.” ● Steve Gregor spent £15,000 installing vehicle management systems

● Members of the South West branch of the Association of Women in Property being given a tour of the new Filwood Green Business Park by members of the Midas Construction team leading the project.

● FOR the founders of cafe andfood chain Friska, being greenmeans doing what feels good.Ed Brown and Griff Holland

founded the business with theslogan “Feel Good Food”.Griff said: “To feel good about

what we do, we need to do thingsresponsibly.”The firm, which started in Victoria

Street and recently announcedplans to expand into other cities,recently won the Best EthicalRestaurant title at the ObserverFood Awards. Griff, however,believes responsible is a better wordthan green or ethical.“If we talk about ‘green’, it’s a

choice people can easily opt out ofbut ‘responsibility’ puts the onus onus all to do it,” he said.“But it has to be more than a

badge. Responsibility has to be atthe core of what you do. If there’snot a real belief and drive then it’sunlikely it will work.”Friska has invested in this

responsible approach. It installed

convection hobs which use lessenergy, for example.“They are expensive to put in but

the costs are lower to run,” saidGriff. “And it makes it a nicer placeto work because less heat meansthe kitchen isn’t a sweat pit!”A zero-waste-to-landfill policy

helped Friska win the Business WestGreen Big Green Week GreenBusiness Award in 2013, with foodwaste composted, other materialsrecycled and anything else sent toan incinerator.The firm also uses 100 per cent

green energy in the stores where itcontrols the supplier, such asVictoria Street, using the green tarifffrom another local business, energysupplier Ovo.“Is it more expensive?” he says.

“Not really. With most of thesethings if you are committed and putthe effort in it doesn’t have to costmore.“We are a business so any ideas

have to make financial sense. Butthere haven’t been many good,responsible ideas that haven’t madesense.”

Good food served with thoughtFriska

● Friska founders Griff Holland and Ed Brown

We hope any smallbusiness – hairdresser,greengrocer, bookshop –can get involved. Theymight be interested froma financial point of view,looking at their energybills and wanting tobecome more efficient.”

“

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#GreaterWest

Find out more at FirstGreatWestern.co.uk and on Twitter @FGW

The spirit ofBrunelwill help

us build agreaterwest.

BUILDING A GREATER WEST

he created the greatest rail network in the world.

not an idle tenure.

stations. We’re introducing refurbished trains with more

building a greater west.

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RetailNew focus at Mitie producesrise in profits and revenues● AN outsourcing firm is growing profits byfocusing on its core facilities managementbusiness and ditching loss-making areas.Mitie, which employs about 700 people at its

Emersons Green base, grew profits andrevenues in the first half of the year.The Bristol founded FTSE 250 company,

reported £64.2 million operating profits for thesix months ending September 30, up three percent. The firm’s revenue grew 4.8 per cent to£1.1 billion.Group finance director Suzanne Baxter,

pictured, told the Post: “We reconsidered ourportfolio and decided to focus on areas wherewe think the long-term risk and return matrixlooks best.”That means mainly long-term, recurring

revenue facilities managementcontracts, however thefirm sees great potentialin healthcare.Suzanne said: “As

demographicschange, healthcareprovision has tochange and there willbe more outsourcingto private firms andmore joining up healthand social care services.”Revenues in the facilities

management business grew 6.3 per cent with90 per cent of contracts up for tender beingretained. Among those was a key £250 millionfive-year deal with Vodafone.Meanwhile Mitie has been pulling out of

loss-making businesses including a mechanicaland electrical engineering company, which lost£6.9 million in the six months. And it took astinging £45.7 million hit from its assetmanagement arm, covering exceptional costsfrom its disposal of the business.

Experts ready to give support● MORE than 50 business experts aroundBristol are now accredited to help firms throughthe Growth Vouchers programme.The scheme helps small businesses to cover

some of the cost of advice on finance, cashflow, management skills and sales andmarketing. The 53 advisers in Bristol includeRob Thomas, chief digital officer and managingdirector of WSI-e Marketing.He said: “Bristol is full of shops, garages,

cafes and manufacturers that are run byenterprising and hardworking people. TheGovernment wants to make sure businessescan access the right support at the right time.Growth Vouchers gives business owners theopportunity to get independent help. Details at:www.great business.gov.uk/growthvouchers.

Facilities management

Growth Vouchers

Out of the blue Stylish walletsfor disabled badges prove hit

Assistant Editor (Business)[email protected]

IT systems

Team growth forces move to bigger office

#GreaterWest

Find out more at FirstGreatWestern.co.uk and on Twitter @FGW

The spirit ofBrunelwill help

us build agreaterwest.

BUILDING A GREATER WEST

he created the greatest rail network in the world.

not an idle tenure.

stations. We’re introducing refurbished trains with more

building a greater west.

● Staff from WPC Software outside their new HQ in EmersonsGreen. Chris Gough is in the front row, second from left, and GlennBewes is second from right

NEW OUTLETS

● The Post Office is to beginstocking Blue BadgeCompany products in storesacross the UK.It comes just weeks after

its trademark blue badgeholders were rolled outacross more than 2,000Boots stores in the UK.The Post Office will stock

12 designs from thecompany’s blue badge walletcollection. The first productswill land in over 200 of themain Crown Post Offices andwill then be rolled out toaround 300 stores over thenext few months.The company was the first

in the world to offer uniquelystyled blue badge holdersand remains the only one inthe UK.Director Ellen Green said:

“We were absolutelydelighted when the PostOffice agreed to a deal!”

● Ellen Green, founder of BlueBadge Company; right, thestylish wallets

WHEN Ellen Greensecured her first bigorder, the elationwas soon followedby a reality check.

High street chain Boots wanted10,000 of her stylish blue badgeholder wallets delivered in eightweeks. To that point, Blue BadgeCompany had only made 8,000 inits first two years.“We up-scaled very quickly,”

said Ellen. “I had everyone in-cluding my mum in the work-room sewing and ironing andgetting the wallets and packingthem. That was a massive shiftfor us. We had sold to a few mo-bility shops but nothing of thatkind of volume.”While the margins weren’t

high on the Boots deal, it got theproduct out there and to date thefirm has sold 45,000 through thechain.NowEllenhas done another big

deal, this time to be stocked inpost offices nationwide.From a back bedroom business

in which she had worked with afriend before buying them out,Blue Badge Company has grownquickly. The firm moved intoworkshop space in Montpelier,knocked through into a secondunit, then a third.Ellen, 30, admits she is “risk

averse” and won’t expand untilshe is confident the numbersstack up.But there is huge potential,

with 2.6 million disabled bluebadge holders in the UK. And it’sa market that is changing.“I was amazed before we came

along you could only buy naffones with the wheelchair logo onthe side,” said Ellen.“My grandparents’ generation

would have been happy to havethe old functional thing but myparents are more sophisticatedshoppers. I see the disabilitymar-

ket changing quite radically.They don’t want really dullproducts.”It sells through stores includ-

ing Boots but also throughAmazon and its own website on-line, which to date has been the“bread and butter” trade.A good sign for her business is

that Ellen appears willing to takeadvice. She is about to take on anon-executive director, workedwith the Growth Acceleratorscheme and has lent on UK Trade& Investment for exporting ex-

pertise, although such a move issome way off yet.For now, she is focusing on the

UK and promoting her productsbeyond the assisted living andhealthcare stores to the large giftmarket.“The places this product could

go are vast,” said Ellen. “Nextyear we hope to cross over intothe gift market. Most people Iknowhave a relativewho is a bluebadge holder.”Like many start-ups, Ellen

began after being made redund-

ant. But unlike most which re-main effectively self-employment, this business hasgrown and is providing jobs too.She employs 10 people on

payroll and eight more home andflexible workers as needed tomeet demand. Forty per cent ofthe workers live with some formof disability. That’s not just equalopportunities but also better un-derstanding their market.With other new textile products

already in production, includinga series of toasty wheat warmers,travel cardholders and a leathercollection of the parking permitwallets, Blue Badge Companyhopes to be the biggest supplierand manufacturer such modernliving aids in thenext three to fiveyears.While it is a steep learning

curve, delivering that first bigorder has given Ellen and herteam the confidence they can doanything.

A SOFTWARE developer special-ising in IT systems for policeforces hasmoved to bigger officesas its team grows.WPC Software has relocated

from Keynsham, where it wasbased for 15 years, to premises inLongwell Green.The building in Kingsfield

Lane has been refurbished toprovidemuch-needed office spaceandmeetings rooms for the grow-ing business which now employsnearly 30 staff.And the firm, which develops

software for public sector bodiesincluding national governmentagencies, is recruiting additionalgraduates and software de-velopers as it continues to grow.The firm is moving its invest-

igations management tool Crim-

son, originally developed forpolice and trading standardsteams, into new markets.Its products are designed to

help police forces share inform-ation, work more efficiently andreduce bureaucracy.It has created tools for a wide

range of applications, from fraudinvestigations and staff vetting tomissing persons and stolenvehicle administration. Its sys-tems enable forces to work to-gether and with other agencies.Its latest appointment is Chris

Gough, who joins as servicesmanager from ICE ICT.Chris said: “I am looking for-

ward to working with the team tohelp consolidate our services inthe police market and further de-velop other business sectors.”

● LUXURY kitchen outlet Tom Howley islaunching a new showroom in Bristol tomorrow.The Clifton showroom is a response to thegrowing customer demand from the region.The firm said Clifton and the Bristol area was

the perfect location for its top-end brands, withbespoke kitchens starting at £30,000.Chef Nigel Smith will give a live cooking and

tasting experience at the launch. Find out moreat www.tomhowley.co.uk.

New showroom openingKitchens

TO LETPeriod

Office BuildingWestbury on Trym

BristolApproximately 1,700 sq ft with parking

New leaseAll enquiries contact the agents:

Andrew [email protected] ©LW

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10 Wednesday, November 19, 2014 11Wednesday, November 19, 2014 www.bristolpost.co.ukwww.bristolpost.co.uk

TTIP roadshow

American dream Tradedeal would aid exporters

Business diary

Email your business events [email protected] are sometimescancelled without us beingnotified so please check withorganisers before travelling.

Women’s EntrepreneurshipDay: Women entrepreneurs areinvited to network at BordeauxQuay, Bristol, today from 5-7pm.No booking required. Tweet outat #BWED14.

Ladies Who Latte: Flexible,informal networking forentrepreneurial women at NewWorld Business Centre, StationRoad, Warmley, 10am-noon,tomorrow. Contacts: Sarah or Lizon 0117 332 0900, [email protected].

Environmental managementseminar: Manufacturers’organisation EEF is running acourse tomorrow to help firmsadapt to the new standard forenvironmental management. Theevent takes place at Engineer’sHouse, The Promenade, CliftonDown. For details go towww.eeftraining.org.uk/iso14001.

Prepared for Investment: Oneday training course covering tothe issues and processesassociated with investmentsmade into private limitedcompanies. £360+VAT. LeighCourt Business Centre, AbbotsLeigh. 9.30am-4pm, tomorrow.Register via Business West.

Bristol & Bath InternationalNetwork: Free event offeringadvice and support needed tobe a success overseas. From3.30-8pm tomorrow, at BristolAirport The Bristol Room, OldTerminal Administration &Security Building, BS48 3DY.

Tweet-up Bristol: Informalbusiness networking in a bar,talking about business, twitterand more. 6-9pm, Tuesday atRevolution, St Nicholas Street.

Bristol as sustainable eventdestination: Positive ImpactEvents hosts a workshop onimproving the profitability,efficiency and reputation of yourbusiness. Tuesday, from 5-7pm,at the Create Centre. Sign up athttp://positiveimpactevents.com/products/bristol-open-day.

Bristol Junior ChamberPresidents’ Lecture: BaronessGillian Shephard, Deputy Chairof the Government’s SocialMobility and Child PovertyCommission, talks about socialmobility. Wednesday, November26, 11.30am, at Clarke WillmottLLP, Bath Street, Bristol.

Prepare your business for sale:Joint event by HR Dept andBristol ActionCOACH Rob Carterthat looks at the things you needto do to get you business fit forsale. Thursday, November 27,KingsWeston House, 9-1pm.Register at Eventbrite.

Export events open up world of opportunities

In pictures Explore Export at the Bristol Hotel

MORE than 400 delegates attendedevents across the South West lastweek to learn about internationalbusiness opportunities and the sup-port available to reach new custom-ers around the world.A series of 14 UK Trade and In-

vestment (UKTI) events were heldacross the region as part of ExportWeek, with record numbers of del-egates attending.At the flagship ExploreExport

event alone, more than 670 one-to-onemeetings were held with trade ad-visers from over 65 countries.

Russell Jones, UKTI regional dir-ector said:“It was encouraging to seeso many people throughout the weekand to hear about many of the re-gion’s success stories.“I hope we have inspired more

South West businesses, both largeand small, to consider exporting andlook forward to hearing success stor-ies in the months to come.“Exporting is crucial to the growth

of our regional economy. The Britishbrand is incredibly strongthroughout the world, bringing withit a reputation of credibility and re-

liability and there has never been amore opportune time to take advant-age of these commercial prospects.“UKTI has a wealth of support on

offer to ease the process and, mostimportantly, an experienced team oflocal export advisers to help.However, the first step must comefrom business so I encourage thatstep to be taken today so you canaccess this essential knowledge andexpertise.”Tim Harrap, head of collaboration

at North Somerset cheesemaker LyeCross Farm, attended the Explore-

Export event at the Bristol Hotel.Tim said: “The event is a real gem

and is unrivalled in its format as anetworking opportunity. The level ofmarket intelligence the trade officershave is fantastic and they are verycommercially attuned to the needs ofdelegates.“In one morning I was able to meet

with representatives from Korea,Thailand and Finland, to name a few,who were able to provide me with upto date information on the state of theeconomy in their respective coun-tries.”

BUSINESSPEOPLE need tobe less chicken – chlorinewashed or otherwise – andshout about the benefits offree trade, a gathering of in-

dustry leaders and entrepreneurswas told today.More then 50 people attended the

discussion on TTIP – the Transat-lantic Trade and Investment Part-nership – in Bristol this morning.They were greeted by a group of

around a dozen protesters outside theVictoria Street offices of GrantThornton, who believe the trade dealcould threaten theNHS and give glob-al corporations the power to sue thegovernment over future changes inpolicy.But the panel, including repres-

entatives from BritishAmercianBusiness which hosted the event inassociation with the CBI – and the USEmbassy urged those in a attendanceto speak out about the potential be-nefits.TTIP is a potential trade deal

between the European Commissionand the US, which has been underdiscussion for a couple of years but isstill far from being finalised.If it happens it should cut or elim-

inate tariffs businesses inEurope payto sell in the US and vice versa, makecustoms red tape lighter, and – in astep further than previous trade ar-rangements – get rid of lots of costlyregulation companies have to gothrough, often caused by differencesin the standards in each country.Debs Waddell, regional director of

the CBI, gave an example of the kindof business the deal could help.“Imagine I’m a micro-brewer from

Bristol starting to export to the US,”she said. “I would have to pay 157 percent more tax than an equivalentAmerican brewer. But if that Amer-ican brewer came here, they wouldpay the same tax asme.Wehave got tolevel the playing field.”The talks are looking at industries

including automotive, engineeringmachinery, drugs and medical equip-ment.Richard Currie, policy director at

logistics firm UPS who was on thepanel, said: “I’ve been the to the USand I haven’t thought twice aboutputting my kids in the back of the caror about taking drugs prescribedthere because it’s perfectly safe, sowhy not eliminate the second level ofcosts and regulation?”He added that main beneficiaries

would be small and medium-sizedbusinesses and consumers.But Jeffries Briginshaw, managing

director of transatlantic business or-ganisation BritishAmerican Busi-ness, admitted the public had notbeen won overHe said: “As a business community,

we have not been able to capture the

public imagination therefore thesebaseless scare stories about the NHSand whatever else start to takeroot.”Ron Yip, senior policy adviser at

the Government Department of Busi-ness, Innovation and Skills, ad-dressed some of the concerns.“There are various groups very

vocal about TTIP,” he said. “For themthe best outcome is to have no deal.They cite public concern which inour view is based onmisconceptions.They say TTIP is paving way for theNHS to be privatised. This is not thecase. TTIP explicitly rules out lib-

eralisation of public services.“There are also concerns that with

regulation moving closer we willhave a race to the bottom. Again thisis a misconception. We are not look-ing for everything to be harmonisedbutwe are looking forways tomake iteasier for businesses to negotiate thedifferences in regulations.”JimNeel, First Secretary for Trade

at the US Embassy in London, said hewas optimistic about the talks be-cause while 20 years ago both partieswould have focused on their differ-ences now, as other economies growaround the globe, they see more sim-ilarities between Europe and the US.But he added: “My concern is that

for the average person the first con-tact with TTIP will be some of thenegative stories and that gives us anextra hurdle to negotiate. My askwould be to raise your voices and talkabout TTIP in a positive way. Gettingbusiness voices in UK to raise thevolume and get themessage out theremore.”He said regardless of trade deals an

American companywould not be ableto sell something to a European whodidn’t want to buy it.“I go in McDonald’s here and the

word sustainability is in the win-dow,” he said. “The word respons-ibility is on the table. The menu tellsme the food is sourced in the UK.McDonald’s in the US doesn’t looklike that. They respond to what theconsumer wants.”As for the chlorine... one recent

so-called “scare story” says Germansare opposing the deal because in theUS chickens are washed in chlorine.Jim said the strict US rules on

listeria means chickens are indeedgiven a “gentle chlorine bath”, whichthey generally aren’t in Europe.“It has become a hobby horse for

people concerned about TTIP,” hesaid. “Because it just doesn’t soundvery tasty.” But before we start get-ting in a flap, Jim adds: “In the EUlettuce is treated in a similar way.”

● Make up your own mind.www.cbi.org.uk/media-centre/news-articles/2014/10/ttip-facts/● https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/pages/ttip_more_information

Jim Neel, First Secretaryfor Trade at the

US Embassy in London

My concern is that forthe average person thefirst contact with TTIP willbe some of the negativestories. Raise your voicesand talk about TTIP in apositive way.

“


● Panel, from left, Tom Sallis, senior policy advisor for CBI, Richard Currie, policy director at UPS, Ron Yip, seniorpolicy adviser at BIS, textiles designer Penny Sueme, Jim Neel, first secretary of trade at the US Embassy in London,and Jeffries Briginshaw, managing director of hosts BritishAmerican Business, at the TTIP roadshow held at GrantThornton’s offices in Victoria Street, Bristol

● Daniel Powell and Daisy Lacey, both of Greenbest● Tom Barton, Clever Chef, and Simon Wythe, Desire RC

● John Day, WDM, Richard Dal Lago, WDM, and Phillip Harrall, PramanaResearch at the ExploreExport event at the Bristol Hotel

● Phil Bridgeman, Business West, and Matthew Hornsby, DelibPictures: Michael Lloyd

● Guests atthe ExploreExport eventat the BristolHotel

● CarolineDavey,JoanneScutcher,and ImogenWillis. allfromOctaviusHunt

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10 Wednesday, November 19, 2014 11Wednesday, November 19, 2014 www.bristolpost.co.ukwww.bristolpost.co.uk

TTIP roadshow

American dream Tradedeal would aid exporters

Business diary

Email your business events [email protected] are sometimescancelled without us beingnotified so please check withorganisers before travelling.

Women’s EntrepreneurshipDay: Women entrepreneurs areinvited to network at BordeauxQuay, Bristol, today from 5-7pm.No booking required. Tweet outat #BWED14.

Ladies Who Latte: Flexible,informal networking forentrepreneurial women at NewWorld Business Centre, StationRoad, Warmley, 10am-noon,tomorrow. Contacts: Sarah or Lizon 0117 332 0900, [email protected].

Environmental managementseminar: Manufacturers’organisation EEF is running acourse tomorrow to help firmsadapt to the new standard forenvironmental management. Theevent takes place at Engineer’sHouse, The Promenade, CliftonDown. For details go towww.eeftraining.org.uk/iso14001.

Prepared for Investment: Oneday training course covering tothe issues and processesassociated with investmentsmade into private limitedcompanies. £360+VAT. LeighCourt Business Centre, AbbotsLeigh. 9.30am-4pm, tomorrow.Register via Business West.

Bristol & Bath InternationalNetwork: Free event offeringadvice and support needed tobe a success overseas. From3.30-8pm tomorrow, at BristolAirport The Bristol Room, OldTerminal Administration &Security Building, BS48 3DY.

Tweet-up Bristol: Informalbusiness networking in a bar,talking about business, twitterand more. 6-9pm, Tuesday atRevolution, St Nicholas Street.

Bristol as sustainable eventdestination: Positive ImpactEvents hosts a workshop onimproving the profitability,efficiency and reputation of yourbusiness. Tuesday, from 5-7pm,at the Create Centre. Sign up athttp://positiveimpactevents.com/products/bristol-open-day.

Bristol Junior ChamberPresidents’ Lecture: BaronessGillian Shephard, Deputy Chairof the Government’s SocialMobility and Child PovertyCommission, talks about socialmobility. Wednesday, November26, 11.30am, at Clarke WillmottLLP, Bath Street, Bristol.

Prepare your business for sale:Joint event by HR Dept andBristol ActionCOACH Rob Carterthat looks at the things you needto do to get you business fit forsale. Thursday, November 27,KingsWeston House, 9-1pm.Register at Eventbrite.

Export events open up world of opportunities

In pictures Explore Export at the Bristol Hotel

MORE than 400 delegates attendedevents across the South West lastweek to learn about internationalbusiness opportunities and the sup-port available to reach new custom-ers around the world.A series of 14 UK Trade and In-

vestment (UKTI) events were heldacross the region as part of ExportWeek, with record numbers of del-egates attending.At the flagship ExploreExport

event alone, more than 670 one-to-onemeetings were held with trade ad-visers from over 65 countries.

Russell Jones, UKTI regional dir-ector said:“It was encouraging to seeso many people throughout the weekand to hear about many of the re-gion’s success stories.“I hope we have inspired more

South West businesses, both largeand small, to consider exporting andlook forward to hearing success stor-ies in the months to come.“Exporting is crucial to the growth

of our regional economy. The Britishbrand is incredibly strongthroughout the world, bringing withit a reputation of credibility and re-

liability and there has never been amore opportune time to take advant-age of these commercial prospects.“UKTI has a wealth of support on

offer to ease the process and, mostimportantly, an experienced team oflocal export advisers to help.However, the first step must comefrom business so I encourage thatstep to be taken today so you canaccess this essential knowledge andexpertise.”Tim Harrap, head of collaboration

at North Somerset cheesemaker LyeCross Farm, attended the Explore-

Export event at the Bristol Hotel.Tim said: “The event is a real gem

and is unrivalled in its format as anetworking opportunity. The level ofmarket intelligence the trade officershave is fantastic and they are verycommercially attuned to the needs ofdelegates.“In one morning I was able to meet

with representatives from Korea,Thailand and Finland, to name a few,who were able to provide me with upto date information on the state of theeconomy in their respective coun-tries.”

BUSINESSPEOPLE need tobe less chicken – chlorinewashed or otherwise – andshout about the benefits offree trade, a gathering of in-

dustry leaders and entrepreneurswas told today.More then 50 people attended the

discussion on TTIP – the Transat-lantic Trade and Investment Part-nership – in Bristol this morning.They were greeted by a group of

around a dozen protesters outside theVictoria Street offices of GrantThornton, who believe the trade dealcould threaten theNHS and give glob-al corporations the power to sue thegovernment over future changes inpolicy.But the panel, including repres-

entatives from BritishAmercianBusiness which hosted the event inassociation with the CBI – and the USEmbassy urged those in a attendanceto speak out about the potential be-nefits.TTIP is a potential trade deal

between the European Commissionand the US, which has been underdiscussion for a couple of years but isstill far from being finalised.If it happens it should cut or elim-

inate tariffs businesses inEurope payto sell in the US and vice versa, makecustoms red tape lighter, and – in astep further than previous trade ar-rangements – get rid of lots of costlyregulation companies have to gothrough, often caused by differencesin the standards in each country.Debs Waddell, regional director of

the CBI, gave an example of the kindof business the deal could help.“Imagine I’m a micro-brewer from

Bristol starting to export to the US,”she said. “I would have to pay 157 percent more tax than an equivalentAmerican brewer. But if that Amer-ican brewer came here, they wouldpay the same tax asme.Wehave got tolevel the playing field.”The talks are looking at industries

including automotive, engineeringmachinery, drugs and medical equip-ment.Richard Currie, policy director at

logistics firm UPS who was on thepanel, said: “I’ve been the to the USand I haven’t thought twice aboutputting my kids in the back of the caror about taking drugs prescribedthere because it’s perfectly safe, sowhy not eliminate the second level ofcosts and regulation?”He added that main beneficiaries

would be small and medium-sizedbusinesses and consumers.But Jeffries Briginshaw, managing

director of transatlantic business or-ganisation BritishAmerican Busi-ness, admitted the public had notbeen won overHe said: “As a business community,

we have not been able to capture the

public imagination therefore thesebaseless scare stories about the NHSand whatever else start to takeroot.”Ron Yip, senior policy adviser at

the Government Department of Busi-ness, Innovation and Skills, ad-dressed some of the concerns.“There are various groups very

vocal about TTIP,” he said. “For themthe best outcome is to have no deal.They cite public concern which inour view is based onmisconceptions.They say TTIP is paving way for theNHS to be privatised. This is not thecase. TTIP explicitly rules out lib-

eralisation of public services.“There are also concerns that with

regulation moving closer we willhave a race to the bottom. Again thisis a misconception. We are not look-ing for everything to be harmonisedbutwe are looking forways tomake iteasier for businesses to negotiate thedifferences in regulations.”JimNeel, First Secretary for Trade

at the US Embassy in London, said hewas optimistic about the talks be-cause while 20 years ago both partieswould have focused on their differ-ences now, as other economies growaround the globe, they see more sim-ilarities between Europe and the US.But he added: “My concern is that

for the average person the first con-tact with TTIP will be some of thenegative stories and that gives us anextra hurdle to negotiate. My askwould be to raise your voices and talkabout TTIP in a positive way. Gettingbusiness voices in UK to raise thevolume and get themessage out theremore.”He said regardless of trade deals an

American companywould not be ableto sell something to a European whodidn’t want to buy it.“I go in McDonald’s here and the

word sustainability is in the win-dow,” he said. “The word respons-ibility is on the table. The menu tellsme the food is sourced in the UK.McDonald’s in the US doesn’t looklike that. They respond to what theconsumer wants.”As for the chlorine... one recent

so-called “scare story” says Germansare opposing the deal because in theUS chickens are washed in chlorine.Jim said the strict US rules on

listeria means chickens are indeedgiven a “gentle chlorine bath”, whichthey generally aren’t in Europe.“It has become a hobby horse for

people concerned about TTIP,” hesaid. “Because it just doesn’t soundvery tasty.” But before we start get-ting in a flap, Jim adds: “In the EUlettuce is treated in a similar way.”

● Make up your own mind.www.cbi.org.uk/media-centre/news-articles/2014/10/ttip-facts/● https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/pages/ttip_more_information

Jim Neel, First Secretaryfor Trade at the

US Embassy in London

My concern is that forthe average person thefirst contact with TTIP willbe some of the negativestories. Raise your voicesand talk about TTIP in apositive way.

“


● Panel, from left, Tom Sallis, senior policy advisor for CBI, Richard Currie, policy director at UPS, Ron Yip, seniorpolicy adviser at BIS, textiles designer Penny Sueme, Jim Neel, first secretary of trade at the US Embassy in London,and Jeffries Briginshaw, managing director of hosts BritishAmerican Business, at the TTIP roadshow held at GrantThornton’s offices in Victoria Street, Bristol

● Daniel Powell and Daisy Lacey, both of Greenbest● Tom Barton, Clever Chef, and Simon Wythe, Desire RC

● John Day, WDM, Richard Dal Lago, WDM, and Phillip Harrall, PramanaResearch at the ExploreExport event at the Bristol Hotel

● Phil Bridgeman, Business West, and Matthew Hornsby, DelibPictures: Michael Lloyd

● Guests atthe ExploreExport eventat the BristolHotel

● CarolineDavey,JoanneScutcher,and ImogenWillis. allfromOctaviusHunt

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12 Wednesday, November 19, 2014www.bristolpost.co.uk

The back pageDeals● Independent building firm TuffinFerraby Taylor has acquired WyeSolutions, the Bristol-based firm ofconsulting building servicesengineers.Wye Solutions has a number of

high profile clients includingSiemens, Highcross StrategicAdvisers and Ashdown Phillips.The acquisition, for an

undisclosed sum, will enhance TFT’soffering. The team from WyeSolutions will move to TFT’s officesin Queen Square.Tuffin Ferraby Taylor managing

partner Alan Pemberton said: “Ourconsultancies have been workingclosely together for the past 10years. The market in the South Westhas been particularly strong for usover the last 12 months and we arevery pleased to have the team moveto our Bristol offices as a fullyintegrated part of TFT, with theirtechnical expertise andwide-ranging experience bolsteringour already strong offering in thisarea.”

People● Factual programme producer IconFilms is investing in training its staffthanks to money from CreativeSkillset’s Skills Investment Funds.Laura Marshall, the firm’s

managing director, said: ‘We areproud of our record in growing anddeveloping our people to enable

them to do their best work.“This funding allows us to

increase our spend in trainingbenefiting not only Icon Films butthe wider creative economy.”The fund helps companies invest

in the development of skills andtalent in the UK creative industries.

● Builder Redrow is celebrating 40years in business this month withnew hires and a strong showing.The firm, which employs 130 in

the area from its base in BradleyStoke, reports it has already sold 70per cent of its housing stock for theyear. It has seven developments on

Staff ‘are the key concern’

BRISTOL-based SMEs are most con-cerned about staff, according to newresearch conducted at a Backingyour Ambition event hosted byLloyds Bank Commercial Banking.

Nearly three quarters (74 per cent) of thosesurveyed said that the biggest decisionthey’ve had tomake for their business relatesto people, from recruitment and retentionthrough to performance management. A fur-ther 74 per cent said they were worried aboutlosing good members of staff.This sentiment echoes one of the key find-

ings of a report, unveiled at the event byGrowthAccelerator, which studies the char-acteristics of businesses deemed to be hypergrowth businesses.Hyper growth is a term used to describe

rapid business growth at a rate of at leastthree times higher than the accepted defin-ition of high growth.More than 70 local business leaders from

across the area attended the Lloyds

Bank-hosted event.David Beaumont, area director for SME

Banking in the South West for Lloyds BankCommercial Banking, said: “Whilst manysurveyed said they had been forced to look attheir business activity, it’s clear from speak-ing with those in the room this morning thatthis hasn’t dampened any entrepreneurialspirit.“There is a strong sense of business com-

munity inBristol andwith 57 per cent of SMEowners saying they would prefer to speakwith an external business adviser to realisetheir business ambitions, there is no short-age of peers in the area to turn to for sup-port.“These events both provide our customers

with an ideal networking opportunity, andare an invaluable forum for us to engagewithbusinesses in the area to get a real un-derstanding of their plans for the future – andto see how we can help these businesses torealise their ambitions.”

Backing your Ambition event

the go in the South West.Barry Stiles has been promoted to

regional managing director for theSouth West and West Countrydivisions.And Lee Hawker, who joined

Redrow as a graduate trainee in2000, has been promoted toregional director of the South Westdivision after working his way upthrough the ranks.Lee said: “The South West

division has been performingincredibly well so it’s great to becelebrating our 40th anniversaryfrom such a positive position.”

● David Davies from HargreavesLansdown has been named CIO ofThe Year at the UK IT IndustryAwards 2014 run by BCS, theChartered Institute for IT, andComputing.David was presented

with the Award bycomedian Rich Hall ata glittering dinner heldat Battersea ParkEvents Arena.David said: “I am

delighted to have beenrecognised by theindustry in such a highlycompetitive category. The roleof the CIO is becoming increasingchallenging given the crucial natureof IT to the operating models offinancial services business. This hasbeen an outstanding year for the ITteam at Hargreaves Lansdown andthis award would not have beenpossible without them.”

● North Somerset-basedPure Comms hasappointed anon-executivechairman to helpadvise themanagement as itgrows.Julian Telling is

known on the Bristolbusiness scene havingset up the Falcon Group inthe early 1980s and been anon-executive director of theinsurance broker Brightside Group.

Your digest of the week in business

The business has grown from oneto 12 staff in five years; and from astanding start turnover to just shy of£2 million.

Managing director RobVivian said: “Julian’sexperience andknowledge will serve uswell as we look tocontinue growing andcreating skilled jobs inthe region.“We will soon be

opening a new office inCornwall, and it will be

important for myself and therest of the board to tap into

Julian’s stewardship.”

● Stuff advertising, based in PrinceStreet, has made two appointmentsto its client service team after a yearof growth. Lauren Tregaskes, above,and Clare Szymanski, below, jointhe ranks to support the agency withits growing client base. Lauren

joins as account manager,having previously workedat Bray Leino while Clarehas experience at JWTin London.Managing director

Jonnie Galvin-Wrightsaid: “We are extremelypleased to welcomeLauren and Clare to ourteam. They have the right

expertise to enhance ourcreative passion and their

appointments will strengthen ourdedicated client service team.”

● From left, Lloyds area director SME Banking - Bristol and South West David Beaumont,Dr Brian McConnell from Hydrock, Rob Turner from the Growth Accelerator and LloydsBank Senior Economist Rhys Herbert

● David Davies with his award, and comedian Rich Hall, right

Business 19 November 2014

Documents

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local engagement

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