West of England impact investor Bristol & Bath Regional Capital (BBRC) is to expand its homes division to finance 1,500 quality new homes for key workers across the region by 2028. The move, which follows an equity investment in BBRC from London-based specialist impact investor Zamo Capital, will help it build on the success...
Business West is to mark International Women’s Day with an event celebrating the region’s female entrepreneurs and focusing on the importance of promoting gender equity in business. A panel of five inspirational women from the region will discuss a range of topics at the event on 8 March, such as how business leaders can...
Bath’s first networking group for businesses with a social conscious and organisations that support them is to be officially launched next week. Bath Social Impact Network will be the first of its kind in the wider Bath area and will offer members support to help them flourish through collaboration and idea generation. Launched as...
Renewable electricity provider Good Energy has launched a new scheme for its customers on Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs) which could earn them more from the power they generate. The Chippenham-headquartered group, the UK’s largest voluntary FiT administrator with more than 180,000 generation customers, piloted the new FiT smart export service in December, with plans to...
Bath has the potential to boost its economy by being a ‘fun’ city with a strong emphasis on wellbeing and health built on its spa heritage, the launch of its first wellness festival heard. It could take lessons from places as diverse as Iceland, with its tradition for thermal bathing, and Singapore’s emphasis on trees...
A Bath firm developing innovative bioplastic food packaging from seaweed has secured more than £3m to take its technology another step closer to everyday use. Sustainable biotech business Kelpi invented the unique compostable material to replace single-use fossil fuel plastics, which take hundreds of years to decompose. The seed round, led by Bristol-based specialist...
A new way to make money from dairy farm waste is to be commercialised by a start-up business founded by a former University of Bath mechanical engineering student. Frome-based BioFactory secured funding from Innovate UK and Defra for a 12-month feasibility study via the Farming Innovation Programme after developing a modular anaerobic digester (AD). ...
More than 100 firms across the West of England have signed up to a regional Good Employment Charter which pledges to pay staff a Real Living Wage and clamp down on the use of zero-hours contracts. Introduced by Metro Mayor Dan Norris as part of a campaign against poverty pay, it also commits employers...
Bath Spa University is celebrating possibly one of the most unusual accolades in its history – Gold Accreditation for being a hedgehog-friendly campus. The award, from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, comes just a year after the university achieved Silver status. Hedgehogs are listed as vulnerable under the International Union for Conservation of Nature...
A spin-out company from the University of Bath is set to develop ultralight and low-carbon next-generation materials for the aerospace and automotive industries. Aerogel Core has been set up by engineers from the university to specialise in products containing innovative and environmentally friendly aerogels for use in soundproofing and heat shielding. The team’s research...
