Sustainable tourism trailblazers can benefit from funded support to make carbon cutting changes

We have launched a new campaign alongside Suffolk County Council to offer free support to help leisure and tourism businesses in the county improve their environmental sustainability.

Fully-funded support is now available to leisure and tourism businesses based in Suffolk and features one-to-one advice from Groundwork’s sustainability experts who can help create a carbon footprint for businesses and work to help them identify cost and carbon savings.

The support package features a series of toolkits to inspire and track progress as well as workshops covering topics such as cutting costs and carbon and how to communicate effectively about sustainability. There will also be an opportunity to undertake accredited Carbon Literacy training, which provides an introduction to climate change and its impacts on our lives at a local and global level.

The economic value of tourism for Suffolk is significant, with over £2billion accredited to the sector in 2023. This equates to more than 37million day trips and overnight stays. People enjoy the region for its natural beauty and leisure and tourism businesses are proving that cutting carbon isn’t just about protecting the planet, it’s also smart business. From pubs to theatres, festivals to boat tours, Carbon Champions are reducing their environmental impact and boosting their profits.

This is an exciting opportunity for tourism businesses in Suffolk to get free support to improve their environmental sustainability, learn from one another and make the county a more sustainable destination. Whilst this sector has the opportunity to save on energy bills and reduce their own carbon emissions, they also play an important role in educating their customers and guests about how they can make sustainable choices when they are enjoying the special locations that Suffolk has to offer

Amy Coulter, Sustainable Business Team Manager, Groundwork East

A number of ‘trailblazing’ businesses have been profiled as part of the campaign to give a flavour of what can be achieved. One of the organisations showcased is New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich:

We aspire to be an exemplar of what a theatre can achieve in embedding sustainability into all aspects of our work. Our environmental credentials are proving to be an important recruiting tool and they are frequently cited by applicants as a reason they want to work with us

David Watson, Executive Director, New Wolsey Theatre