Working with SMEs on the journey to net zero

“Ideas won't keep. Something must be done about them." - Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher

Tackling climate change, accelerating progress to Net Zero and taking action to protect our planet’s fragile ecosystems doesn’t just need us to think about things differently, but to do things differently too. To paraphrase the author Sarah Ban Breathnach, “What the world needs most are dreamers that do”. That’s why our second annual ecosystem partner search is looking for SMEs with innovative nature-based digital solutions. We recognise that collaboration leads to better solutions to the most complex of challenges – and finding solutions to climate change is unarguably the most complex and important challenge of our generation. Our SME partner ecosystem was created with the objective of creating pathways for successful, innovative solutions to scale fast.

The complexity of the climate challenge can seem overwhelming for some, whilst others have other priorities. However, innovative digital technologies play vital roles in abstracting that complexity. Digital automation means that those whose focus is elsewhere can still be part of solving the climate challenge. Simplifying access to the benefits of doing the right thing for our planet and future generations, I believe, underpins a climate transition that is ‘just’. 

We’re looking to collaborate with the growing wave of SMEs who are bringing new and innovative thinking and solutions to these challenges.

Our search this year is building on our established approach to working with SMEs who have digital solutions that complement our own products and services. We collaborate with our partners to create access to new markets and enable our clients to benefit from new thinking and solutions that will help them deliver on their net zero and nature based promises.

In a previous blog I discussed the importance of data in the race to achieve net zero. The visibility provided by access to the right data at the right time empowers each of us to take meaningful decisions about how we address our own carbon footprints. Digital technologies and the data that they generate doesn’t just help us act on climate change, but can also provide motivation. How many of us have been on diets to change our body shapes or get our BMIs back to a healthy level? Achieving that change is generally more successful when we have some way of tracking progress, be that a mirror or set of scales!

There’s real reputational risk for business too. Ever improving access to data is enabling results to be analysed, performance objectively judged and businesses that haven’t delivered on their promises identified. Long gone are the days of paying lip service to climate pledges. Reporting on sustainability has become as embedded as reporting on the gender pay gap and modern slavery.

So, if you have a digital solution that delivers positive outcomes for the natural world and you’re looking to collaborate and create new pathways to scale and commercialise your solution, then

Apply to join our nature-based ecosystem

We will be hosting the selection panels on 21 September 2022, during the Leeds Digital Festival and successful applicants will be invited to join and exhibit at COP27 via the Metaverse.