Abstract
Significant public funds are invested in low carbon advisors to support small- and medium-sized enterprises to reduce carbon emissions on a regional basis. Little research has been conducted on their experiences and practices, nor their place within the context of local business support policy. Findings draw on interviews with 19 advisors in the UK as well as the author’s four years’ experience as an environmentally focused business support practitioner. Establishing and sustaining engagements with small- and medium-sized enterprises on the topic of pro-environmental behaviours is a multifaceted problem. Advisors typically approach businesses with promises of cost savings rather than using environmental messaging and focus their resources on the provision of building energy audits and technical advice. Advisors rarely engage small- and medium-sized enterprises in values-based discussions or by seeking to understand how and why energy is used in the course of everyday business practices. The paper argues that face-to-face meetings could be better utilised if ‘softer’ skills were deployed alongside technical expertise. It discusses the limitations of growth-focused support in the context of environmental objectives and calls for a shift in the culture of advice-giving, supported by social scientifically informed policy.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 384-404 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | Local Economy |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:In England, publicly funded assistance for SMEs to reduce their environmental impact is integrated into the broader provision of business support, through Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and Growth Hubs (Britton and Woodman, 2014). The primary objectives of these organisations are to stimulate growth and generate jobs across the economy (Coutu, 2014; Heseltine, 2012). A large proportion of funding for supporting SMEs comes from EU sources such as the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which is overseen in England by the DCLG. Organisations such as LEPs bid for funding for projects which target SMEs with specific objectives including job creation, research innovation or the acceleration of smart technologies (DCLG, 2015).
Funding Information:
The policy context within which low carbon advisors operate poses many challenges. Low levels of environmental competence amongst policy stakeholders, misaligned targets, artificially compartmentalised funding rules, short timescales for funding and the frequent restructuring of business support governance each hamper advisors’ capacity to deliver low carbon objectives. Given the scale of SMEs’ environmental impact and the preference for incentive-based policy over regulation and taxation, low carbon advisors are shouldered with enormous responsibilities. Despite the best efforts of talented and widely skilled individuals, the current provision of low carbon business support in the UK is unlikely to deliver emissions savings in line with national decarbonisation targets. These middle actors deserve to be supported by people-centred policy with a broader scope than the growth-oriented model of conventional business support. By providing an in-depth account of their practices, this paper has provided the foundations for more research, debate and policy development.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, The Author(s) 2018.
Keywords
- business support
- environmental policy
- intermediaries
- low carbon transition
- middle actors
- small- and medium-sized enterprises
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Economics, Econometrics and Finance(all)