Astra continues its ‘green’ journey
At the end of last year, we announced our ongoing commitment to sustainability by putting in place a permanent long-term plan. Within this, we announced the addition of our ‘Green Team’, who are ‘leaders and champions’ of all things green, with the aim of driving and generating ideas to support sustainability.
Green Business Grant awarded which supports decarbonisation journey
Part of the planning has included looking at the energy use of our core offices, and ways for this to be reduced. Changes to lighting, insulation and heating were identified and recognised by the West of England Combined Authority through their free Carbon Survey to have a significant impact, so we are absolutely delighted to have been given a ‘Green Business Grant’ to enable an upgrade to take place (funded through the European Regional Development Fund). As a result, we will have new LED lighting, roof insulation and a new heating system. These changes will be part of a wider ‘office refit’, which will see a new, fresh look and feel to the premises. The changes will take place over the next 3 months, and will not only provide a more modern and contemporary office space, but more importantly will have sustainability at its core.
These changes will provide the following benefits:
- Reduction in energy use
- Annual reduction in carbon emissions
- Saving on energy bills
West of England Combined Authority said:
“Following their free carbon survey, Astra Security were issued with a decarbonisation report, which identified a range of improvements to support their journey to being more sustainable and improving the energy efficiency for their offices. This is exactly the kind of support this grant is designed for, so we are delighted to have provided the necessary funding for Astra to make their improvements.”
Sarah Steer, Finance, People and Compliance Director at Astra Security said:
“We are absolutely focused on making our business as sustainable as possible, and we wanted to further reduce our carbon footprint. The West of England Green Business Grant made it financially viable for us to take this next step in our decarbonisation journey. We are really excited to see these changes take place, and it’s great to benefit from the funding available.”
Grants are still available until the end of May for small and medium sized enterprises in the West of England. See this web page for more details: www.westofengland-ca.gov.uk/growth-hub/financial-business-support/green-business-grants
