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Local Green project awarded £340,000 to help North East business.

A local green project has been awarded £340,000 funding to help up to 80 businesses in the North East to improve the environmental impact of their products.

Sustainable Lifecycle Design received the grant after they expressed plans to raise awareness of the environmental impact of the product design process.

Under the scheme, which is managed by Newcastle University, a design engineers will spend two days with businesses from a wide range of sectors, after which they will receive recommendations on how they can improve their carbon footprint.

It is hope that the process will also help businesses to increase profitability by improving longevity, reduced costs and more green credentials.

This project is currently unique in the North East, and will have significant value to small businesses according to the communities minister Baroness Hanham.

She commented: “It will increase awareness and understanding of key environmental issues.

“This will have a knock-on effect of increasing profitability of businesses in the Programme area while also helping to reduce the carbon footprint and benefiting the local environment.”

After businesses have been chosen, experts will conduct analysis of key issues, including raw material selection, manufacturing methods, packaging implications and consumption of resources.

The project will also be guided by a series of seminars and workshops which will provide in-depth information on a rang of issues relating to design.

Michael Mulroy, business development manager at Newcastle University’s Resource Centre for Innovation and Design added: “Companies are becoming increasingly aware of the vital importance of their products’ environmental impact.

“Sustainable Lifecycle Design will help them to establish where key improvements can be made and also identify methods of reducing waste and increasing profitability.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .