inCREDible design support for small and medium sized business

27/11/2009

CO2Sense Yorkshire (a fully-owned subsidiary of Yorkshire Forward) has drafted in the services of a specialist eco design consultant that has saved its clients over £55 million, to give small and medium sized businesses in Yorkshire and Humber free access to this valuable expertise.

The CRED project – Carbon and Resource Efficient Design  - will help businesses in Yorkshire and Humber to boost their profitability and decrease their environmental impacts by taking a fresh approach to product design.

Businesses signing up to CRED will benefit from up to six days of eco-design consultancy from Eco 3. The consultancy has worked with many famous names in the past such as Hoselock, B&Q and Hotpoint. Recent work with Dorset Cereals to revise product design resulted in annual cost savings of £200 000, reduced CO2 emissions by 2300 tonnes and reduced raw materials by 28 tonnes.

Explaining the decision to launch CRED, Chris Charles, regional business support project manager for CO2Sense Yorkshire said: “CRED will help to give businesses in Yorkshire and Humber a competitive edge by demonstrating how a product or its packaging can be redesigned to save money and reduce carbon emissions. Eco 3 has a track record of success in this area, for instance it helped 10 businesses in the South West to achieve cost savings of over £1.5 million and CO2 savings of 18,000 tonnes, and we are expecting to see initiatives that help businesses in our region to achieve similar, if not better, results.”

She added: “Good design holds the key to economic and environmental sustainability and we see CRED as an important step on the path to a low carbon economy.”

Research has shown that it can cost 100 times more to correct design errors once a product is in production than to get the design right at the pre-manufacture stage. In addition, some product designs can account for over 95% of a company’s environmental impact.

Mark Shayler, consultant for Eco3 commented: “Businesses in Yorkshire and Humber now have a rare opportunity to get free design advice that could help transform their business through the efficient use of resources. There are lots of opportunities for improvement out there and CO2Sense Yorkshire’s investment in CRED means that businesses prepared to innovate are set to profit from this exciting project.”

Businesses interested in signing up for CRED should contact Mark Shayler on 01530 563330 or cred@CO2Sense.org.uk

The project has been commissioned by CO2Sense Yorkshire with funding from the European Regional Development Fund and Yorkshire Forward.

More information

  • CO2Sense Yorkshire is a not-for-profit business development programme, which helps businesses in Yorkshire and Humber to succeed in the low-carbon economy
  • It is a fully-owned subsidiary of the Regional Development Agency, Yorkshire Forward
  • It is funded by Yorkshire Forward and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
  • It has four programmes: 
  • Resource Efficiency, which helps businesses to use fewer resources and helps businesses in the environmental sector to grow
  • Carbon Action, which helps the region’s largest businesses to adapt their business plans to a changing environment and to prosper in the low-carbon environment
  • Future Energy, which helps businesses to find sources of low-carbon energy and helps generators of low-carbon energy to sell their energy
  • Carbon Capture and Storage, which encourages industry and investors to develop CCS infrastructure in the region

For further information contact: Jill Palmer or Richard Truman, Pelican Public Relations Ltd
Tel: 01457 820807 / Fax: 01457 820824
E-mail: jill.palmer@pelicanpr.co.uk or richard.truman@pelicanpr.co.uk             
Issued on behalf of CO2Sense Yorkshire
CO2Sense Ltd. Registered in England no. 5383346