London - empowering sustainable businesses

Why is London a great place to set up and grow a sustainable business?

The London ecosystem for sustainability and tech startups is absolutely brilliant! There are so many accelerators, events, investors and of course other startup founders. Olio benefitted from the Mayor of London’s International Business Programme. London also has lots of venture capital firms and impact investment funds that are eager to support sustainable businesses.

What steps are you taking to become a greener business?

Olio has the Food Waste Heroes Programme, which enables businesses such as Tesco, Pret a Manger, Booker, Compass Catering and many more to have zero food waste locations. As the race to net zero is now fully underway, businesses with food operations have realised they have to work with Olio to achieve their ESG goals.

How has your company grown in the last couple of years?

In 2022 alone, Olio had 1.5 million new users sign up globally. Over 9 million items were shared on the app in the UK in 2022, a 167% increase on the previous year. But what’s most exciting is that Olio is doing less than 0.01% of our full potential! So, imagine what we can do as we scale.

Does your presence in London help your company progress faster?

Olio has benefitted from programmes such as the Mayor of London’s International Business Programme – which took the company on an incredibly helpful and inspiring trade mission to Silicon Valley, as well as the rich ecosystem of events, investors and peers which have enabled Olio to learn fast and unlock funding. London is also leading globally in the emerging Tech4Good and impact spaces, so it’s been brilliant having that support as the company has been breaking new ground.

What are some challenges for your business in the sustainability field?

Perhaps the biggest challenges have been driving consumer behaviour change, ie encouraging people to give away their spare food and other household items, rather than throw them away; and fundraising as a female founded, Tech4Good business. Thankfully Olio has made good progress on both fronts: more than 6 million people have joined Olio and they’ve successfully given away over 70 million portions of food and 6 million household items; and the company has now raised over $50 million to help fuel growth.

In your opinion, what is London doing well in the sustainability field?

Three years ago, London was named by NESTA as the number one European city for developing and growing tech 4 good solutions, addressing humanity’s greatest social and environmental challenges.

Why is London a great place to set up and grow a sustainable business?

Few other big cities have the momentum of public and private support for climate solutions that London has. Practically, what this means for businesses is:

• Easy to set up a new sustainable business.
• Wider and local government support in the form of constant grant funding opportunities for sustainable solutions.
• Several free business, technical and legal support opportunities.
• Exciting ecosystems of sustainable startups that allow for peer connections, learnings and collaborations. Many exciting stories of collaboration have come out of our ecosystem.
• Consumer appetite for innovative and sustainable products and services.
• Significant investor appetite to support climate tech solutions.

What steps are you taking to become a greener business?

Sustainable Ventures brings together each stakeholder in the net-zero transition, such as investors, government, corporates and consumers. Since 2011, Sustainable Ventures has created Europe’s largest cluster of net-zero and sustainability startups through venture development, workspaces, investment and venture support services.

How has your company grown in the last couple of years?

Within 12 years of existence, Sustainable Ventures has successfully:

• Supported 450 startups in our direct ecosystem.
• Created or maintain 4,200 total jobs.
• Maintained a 65% diversity index.
• Developed 8 spinouts with 1 exit.
• Secured more than £9m of grant funding and £3m of R&D tax credit for our companies.

Does your presence in London help your company progress faster?

The success Sustainable Ventures has had in starting and expanding its operations can partly be attributed to London’s supportive environment for sustainability. This has been possible due to:

• London having the highest concentration of cleantech companies in the UK and the highest investment rate with 70% of all UK VC climate tech investments happening here.
• Many free business support programmes are being funded by local and wider government.
• Sustainable Ventures’ flagship Better Futures + programme, aiming at supporting climate tech SMEs with underrepresented founders 71% diversity rate) has been funded by the Greater London Authority.

What are some challenges for your business in the sustainability field?

Sustainable Ventures believes that the current environment presents a three-fold opportunity. Firstly, the company strongly believes that businesses that are built sustainably are more resilient in the long term. In addition, many startups are commercialising solutions that can save energy and costs, helping organisations drive their sustainability agenda whilst improving their financial position. Finally, the links of climate change and inclusion are undisputed; creating green jobs and addressing fuel and energy poverty can address both.

In your opinion, what is London doing well in the sustainability field?

London has quite a few examples of impactful initiatives in the sustainability field:

• A constant availability of grant funding for net zero solutions making it easy for risky early-stage solutions that would struggle finding public funding to test and launch.
• An encouraging Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme and Enterprise Investment Scheme for early investors making it easier to deploy capital to innovative solutions. In October 2021, the Global Green Finance Index put London at the top of its ranking on the quality of its green finance proposition.
• Consumers are a big driver in those changes. According to Deloitte, “there is a sharp increase in the number of people who have adopted a more sustainable lifestyle in the last 12 months”.

What steps are you taking to become a greener business?

Back Market is creating a robust circular economy, which is imperative to solving the mounting e-waste crisis by keeping electronics in circulation for longer. To date, Back Market has reduced roughly 144,000 tons of CO2e, whilst also preventing the exploitation of about 160,000 tons of primary natural resources thanks to the sale of refurbished technology.

How has your company grown in the last couple of years?

Back Market’s growth in the UK over the past couple of years has accelerated, with the UK growing five times faster than any other global market. This makes the UK Back Market's fastest-ever growing international market.

What are some challenges for your business in the sustainability field?

The perception that refurbished devices aren’t as high-quality or reliable as new ones. New devices have a huge impact on the environment and e-waste is the fastest-growing source of waste on the planet. Refurbished technology can solve both problems.

Why is London a great place to set up and grow a sustainable business?

London is one of the financial hubs of the world. Green finance and ESG, with the norms of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), are aligned with the world’s thought leadership. London is a city that practices sustainability at its core, and Earthood sensed a very logical option of having an office in the city.

What steps are you taking to become a greener business?

Earthood ensures minimal paper and plastic usage in the office premises. All the offices are day lit enough to minimize the use of electricity. Earthood believes in walking the talk and all our clients are advised to follow various sustainability practices at their premises

How has your company grown in the last couple of years?

Earthood has been the fastest growing GHG Auditors and has grown from a team size of 20 people to more than 70 in a span of two years. The year-on-year growth in revenue for the last few years has been north of 30%.

Does your presence in London help your company progress faster?

Definitely! Earthood now has access to European clients and has also been managing the US time zones very efficiently. This was hard to accomplish from the Indian head office. The company is better connected to clients in the UK, and clients have also welcomed the move to have an office in London.

What are some challenges for your business in the sustainability field?

The challenges of today’s market include the lack of understanding and expertise at clients’ end and the fluctuations in the carbon credit prices. There is a big geopolitical risk that is attached to this market. Earthood always ensures proper training and development modules to be covered in its offerings to ensure that the clients understand what needs to be done for a better, greener path. Decentralized and regional markets in the Go-To-Market Strategy is something that Earthood is looking at to overcome a lot of challenges faced in the past.

In your opinion, what is London doing well in the sustainability field?

Waste management of the city is exemplary. Earthood has noticed a lot of new sustainable commercial properties with green building certifications, which is great! The public transportation network helps in controlling air pollution and emissions to a great extent. E-cycle stations at every major city hotspot is another measure that we think London has managed well to curb the emissions while giving access to the general masses for ease in transportation.

Why is London a great place to set up and grow a sustainable business?

London, as the world's Green Hub and climate tech powerhouse, holds an abundance of business accelerator and investment programs aimed towards companies such as Solivus. The fact that Solivus is an EIS company has been an enormous help. The government’s Enterprise Investment Scheme is fantastic support for new innovative technology companies in the UK. We cannot stress enough how beneficial EIS status has been for Solivus.

What steps are you taking to become a greener business?

Solivus has been working with Northampton Saints Rugby club to turn previously unusable roof space into a solar energy asset by installing a lightweight solar system. As a result, Solivus has been recommended for a second stadium. Meanwhile, the company recently completed phase one of a project that will help Cotswold Airport become carbon neutral by 2050.

How has your company grown in the last couple of years?

In 2022, Solivus grew its revenue base. Scaling two business models (commercial and consumer) side by side is ambitious for any high-growth startup, but we can now reveal that our average deal value for a rooftop solar solution is £750,000 and we have generated strong pre-orders for the Solivus Arc. For 2023, Solivus is on target to secure £10m worth of rooftop installations.

Does your presence in London help your company progress faster?

Last year, London was announced as Europe's climate tech powerhouse, with it being one of the most promising in the world right now. Solivus is right in the sweet spot of this trend. In a recent report by London & Partners, the total value of climate tech startups in the UK has almost tripled year-on-year to accumulate $28 billion. Across the globe, this growth is being driven significantly by investment into energy solutions and transportation, accounting for a combined 78% of global climate tech investment last year.

What are some challenges for your business in the sustainability field?

The company’s long-awaited Solivus Arc product for the residential sector is not yet rolling off the production line as we had planned due to a design adjustment that was needed. The company now has an enhanced Solivus Arc shape to optimise generation and plan to have the first units in various global locations for final testing early this year before the first batch is rolled out to customers.

In your opinion, what is London doing well in the sustainability field?

• All buses are now at either compliance or better than compliance levels for emissions
• There are now more cycling routes than ever.
• Wide adoption of zero emission personal transport vehicles (Santander bicycles, Lime, Human Forest and electric scooters)
• Pedal powered delivery vehicles
• Despite London making up just 13% of the UK population, it is home to 22% of the UK’s vegans.