South Cambs Business Tool

Instinctively Green were commissioned by South Cambridgeshire District Council to devise and test a new, unique business engagement tool, “Sustainable Business Tool” (SBT) which focusses on local businesses approach to sustainability.

The business tool was devised following the successful delivery of three Green Business breakfasts. The project and breakfasts were aimed to meet SCDC’s local business growth agenda.

The SBT is a face to face questionnaire followed by feedback. It can be used across business sectors and sizes. It asks a series of questions relating to how the business manages sustainability functions such as energy, water, waste, business travel. The responses are scored using a weighted set of metrics. The scores are combined to provide an overall score under three engagement segments, Awareness, Engagement and Delivery.

The project piloted the SBT across six varying organisations within SCDC boundary. The pilot test helped us to refine the questions and scoring metric.

Key tasks carried out by Instinctively Green were:

• Inputting into the SBT questionnaire and application
• Testing the pilot through field work interviews
• Devising the reporting structure
• Making the business case to SCDC and linking to the wider sustainability benefits

Successful outcomes were:

• Successful engagement with a range of SCDC based businesses
• Delivering a professional business breakfast structure
• Endorsement by various organisations
• Creating a replicable business engagement tool
• Setting a structure to capture business data for detailed interrogation and identifying key trends to overcome real business barriers to sustainability
• A plan for short, medium and long term delivery