New two-day, fully funded workshop to help SMEs explore low carbon opportunities

What does ‘low carbon’ mean? Are there opportunities for growth by becoming a low carbon business? And how do you find out the carbon intensity of your business?

Join Manchester Metropolitan University in December for two days of interactive, face-to-face workshops. Exploring all things low carbon, you’ll assess the carbon intensity of your business, supply chain and products/services. And you’ll identify opportunities for low carbon innovation.

The ECO-I North West project is fully funded by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund for SMEs based in the North West.

What is Eco-I NW?

This practical, interactive project is aimed at North West-based SMEs that are starting their low carbon innovation journey and are looking for opportunities and support to become a low carbon business.

The workshops: 8^th and 15^th December 2021

We’re hosting two, face-to-face workshops to help business owners explore the low carbon landscape.

Dates:              8^th and 15^th December

Time:               10.00 to 16.00 (with lunch provided)

Location:         Manchester Metropolitan University

Cost:                The project is fully funded via the European Regional Development Fund and there is no charge for eligible North West SMEs to attend.

What you’ll learn…

Wednesday 8^th December

• Introduction to the Eco-I NW project, network and learning community.
• Understand why reducing carbon is an opportunity for your business.
• Assessing the carbon intensity of your business, supply chain and products/services.
• Identifying opportunities for low carbon innovation.
• An overview of Manchester Met’s low carbon expertise and access to online resources including analysis tools and technical insights into hydrogen/fuel cell technology, anaerobic digestion, dual fuel technologies, smart infrastructure, 3D Printing and circular economy business models.

Wednesday 15^th December

• The principles of innovation, new product development and how to improve the chances of successful innovation.
• Undertaking and reviewing an innovation readiness self-audit.
• Introduction to Design Thinking and how to use it to rapidly generate and evaluate ideas.
• Action planning, next steps and overview of further support.

Further support through Eco-I NW

For those businesses that identify opportunities for innovation, we’ll be holding a series of design sprint sessions in January and February 2022, to help implement the Design Thinking process.

Following this process, participating businesses can progress to 1-2-1 support from a dedicated academic team to develop a proof-of-concept plan for their innovation.

To register your interest and arrange an informal chat about the project email us at [email protected]  or apply via our website: https://www.mmu.ac.uk/business-school/business/sme-support/eco-i-north-west/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=html-email&utm_campaign=BPE-Nov2021-ECOI&utm_term=&utm_content=pro-Manchester