NBS co-create the British Business Bank’s Green Decoder

The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

Its programmes are currently supporting over £10.3bn of finance to over 92,000 smaller businesses (as at end of September 2021). As well as increasing both supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of the finance options available to smaller businesses. The British Business Bank Finance Hub – where the Green Decoder sits - provides independent and impartial information to businesses about their finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success.

Our NBS academics and sustainability experts provided research and practice-based expertise and knowledge to support the British Business Bank in their quest to provide businesses with the necessary resources and digestible and accessible information to start on their journey towards being net zero.

Dr Muhammad Mazhar, Senior Lecturer in Sustainability, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, commented: “Smaller businesses are key to our economy and have significant carbon emissions impact. They can act as agents for change to meet the UK government’s net zero targets. Most smaller businesses are at the initial stage of their carbon management journey and struggle with understanding the terminology surrounding decarbonisation. We were pleased to work with British Business Bank to produce the Green Decoder which is a useful resource for businesses”.

Source: The British Business Bank

The four-phase consultancy project continues to be delivered over a four-month period with future phases including financing net zero case study development and a training webinar for start-up businesses. So far, the Green Decoder has been accessed by over 2,000 visitors and continues to provide support to businesses across the UK to further develop their understanding of environmental terms.

Angelene Woodland, Chief Marketing Officer, British Business Bank, said: “We launched our Green to Grow Campaign in March, to raise awareness amongst SMEs of the role they play in transitioning to a net zero economy.

Rooted in SME customer insight, it led to the creation of a new sustainability journey on our Finance Hub, centred around the Green Decoder, the creation of which we were pleased to partner with Nottingham Business School on as part of this important campaign.”

At NBS, our consultancy services are tailored to each business and organisation we work with. Find out more about our bespoke training and consultancy.