Home Manchester Groundwork to support Mayor’s ambition for carbon neutrality

Groundwork to support Mayor’s ambition for carbon neutrality

Leading sustainability charity, Groundwork, has expanded the services it provides to businesses across Greater Manchester in response to mounting environmental concern both regionally and nationally.

Last week’s Green Summit saw a commitment from local leaders that Greater Manchester will become a carbon neutral city-region by at least 2040, ten years earlier than the original target, and Groundwork, based in Trafford Park, is ready to play its part in making it one of the leading green city-regions in Europe.

The charity is urging businesses to embed sustainability and environmental efficiency in their everyday operations in order to meet the Mayor of Greater Manchester’s challenge that “all businesses need to become green businesses”.

Nicola Martin, Groundwork’s Sustainable Business Services Manager, has already increased the size of the team with the appointment of a graduate consultant and a new senior consultant in order to meet the increasing demand for sustainability services in the region.


As the professional services arm of the charity, the team advises and supports business of all sizes on everything from environmental and quality management systems, health and safety compliance, carbon footprint management and Carbon Literacy training, right through to the creation of company-wide sustainability strategies and action plans.

Many of these sustainability strategies include a strong corporate social responsibility element, such as a wish to support employee volunteering in local communities and upskill local workforces. Groundwork’s experience in these areas means they can help businesses to define the issues and impacts that are most relevant to them and work in partnership to deliver high-impact sustainability programmes with high levels of social value.

Following the Green Summit, and the publication of the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan, Nicola is determined to help even more local businesses develop and embed more sustainable and safe practices in their operations to help Greater Manchester achieve its ambitious carbon reduction targets.

She said: “The commitments made by the Mayor of Greater Manchester at the Green Summit to bring forward the date for achieving carbon neutrality to at least 2040 means sustainability in business has never been more important. We want to work with even more businesses across Greater Manchester to make them more environmentally responsible and resilient so they can help achieve the city-region’s ambitions, but also the competitive advantage that will result from moving quickly to more sustainable operations.

“Sustainability today is about far more than just being environmentally responsible. It’s only the businesses who look at the bigger picture and align responsible economic, social and environmental operations with their own corporate strategy that will achieve sustainable growth and create a long-term, profitable and resilient future that brings value to all their stakeholders.”