Abertay scheme is an Ace card in bid to help local businesses

Published on Tuesday 5 January 2010 20:52

A PROJECT set up in March to help small businesses save money and create jobs by becoming more environmentally friendly has already come to the aid of nearly 50 companies.

The Eco-Partnerships project, run by Abertay University's Centre for the Environment (Ace), is also working with a further 13 firms across Angus and Fife.

Staff from the Dundee-based university are carrying out free environmental audits for businesses with fewer than 250 workers to measure their performance and then help them to cut their electricity bills, waste less water and find more cost-effective methods of disposing of their waste.

A previous programme carried out by the same team between 2003 and 2008 helped 205 small and medium-sized (SMEs) to save a total of 2 million, while creating 120 jobs and protecting a further 330 posts.

Ace's new three-year Eco-Partnerships project – which was funded with 450,000 from the European Union's regional development fund and 550,000 from the university itself – looks set to beat that total, with an interim report measuring its impact so far expected later this month.

Three full-time staff from the university are already working on the project, with a further six contributing two or three days a week each.

Professor Chris Jefferies, Abertay's chair of environmental engineering and head of the university's Urban Water Technology Centre, wants similar projects to spring up all over Scotland.

Jefferies said: "The mantra from the 1992 Rio Earth summit was 'think global, act local', but is proving to be particularly difficult to implement for some industries and businesses. Actions locally are about getting smaller businesses to work together to become energy efficient.

"That creates its own spin-offs in terms of income for the existing businesses, creating new business opportunities and savings, as well as creating new jobs."

Jefferies said Ace was also working with the Cyrenians Organic Recycling Enterprise (Core), a social enterprise set up by the Cyrenians charity to create jobs and training for homeless people. Core expanded its work into Fife in June with a pilot project initially involving four businesses – including St Andrews University – after the Eco Partnerships team heard about the success of the waste recycling service it was delivering for Edinburgh and West Lothian.

So far, Core has prevented 250 tonnes of food waste going to landfill sites in Fife and its target for the 2010-11 financial year is to raise that figure to 2,200 tonnes.

In one of the early successes from the current project, the Ace team has helped Hotel Broughty Ferry, in Dundee, to slash 900 a week off its utility bills through a series of simple suggestions, such as not lighting gas hobs in its kitchen unless they were in use and slightly lowering the water level in its swimming pool.

Hotel owner Jeff Stewart said: "Although a lot of what they told us was what you would call common sense, it really needs someone to come along and nudge you in the right direction.

"We were looking at having to make a number of staff redundant, but the huge savings we've made on our utility bills has meant that we've been able to keep staff on instead."

The hotel had been spending about 1,800 a week on gas, electricity and water before the Ace team helped to cut its bills by half.