Partner Article

All city businesses should get behind green initiative

Earlier this month Sunderland City Council announced the exciting news that it has entered the race to host the world’s first Green Investment Bank.

As chairman of the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC), I would subsequently like to voice my organisation’s full support of this initiative.

With Nissan at the spearhead of a developing low carbon economy for the region, a host of other local organisations are also making huge strides in the area, including the Port of Sunderland’s developing expertise in subsea engineering and off-shore wind. Sunderland undoubtedly has the ambition and framework to become a suitable home to the bank.

We also encourage other city-based businesses to lend their support, and help to build the case for Sunderland to host the £3 billion centre, and underpin the country’s inevitable sway towards creating low-carbon jobs in coming years.

Nissan has already sent out the right message to other businesses in the North East to cluster around the development of a green economy for the region, confirming last year that the direction of environmental policy in Britain helped its decision to commit to the North East investment and a low-carbon future in terms of infrastructure, customer incentives and educational promotions.

I am pleased to report that many innovative SMEs based on site at the North East BIC are already basing their products and services around a developing green economy, with the help and support of our experienced team of advisers and fellow businesses on site.

Just as the Nissan revamped the local supply chains when the car giant arrived in Sunderland in 1986, creating countless opportunities for the growth of local SMEs since, small firms now have unprecedented opportunities to become world leaders in building products and services around a functioning low carbon economy.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by John Anderson CBE .