Advance London, which is jointly funded by the European Regional Development Fund and LWARB, was formally launched at London’s Living Room in City Hall, today (25 April).
LWARB is a partnership between the Mayor of London and London’s boroughs, and has a remit to improve waste management in the capital. The board is developing a circular economy route map with the aim of turning London into a ‘circular city’. Advance London is the first of a number of investment programmes for SMEs in London, the organisation has said.
LWARB said the goal of the programme is to support small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the capital to improve their competiveness through the adoption of circular business models or scaling up existing circular businesses. The programme provides practical help and advice to SMEs, to ‘catalyse’ the opportunities within the circular economy.
Development
After a short planning and development stage, Advance London is now ready to start delivering direct support to SMEs from May 2017.
According to LWARB, the circular economy offers many benefits to businesses, including access to new markers and new customers; waste minimisation and opportunities to create revenue streams from waste materials; and, protection against future regulatory trends. In particular, it offers benefits to SMEs who are often ‘vulnerable to market conditions’, LWARB has said.
Launching the scheme today, Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, board member and circular economy lead at LWARB, said: “London is home to some impressive circular economy leaders. The nature of the circular economy requires collaboration throughout the supply chain and changes the way businesses interact with consumers – Advance London aims to help SMEs in the capital do exactly that.
“As more and more businesses ‘go circular’ new opportunities will emerge for SMEs to be innovative in the way that they tackle market challenges, and this programme will help a number of businesses through the transition. We believe London can be a real world leader in nurturing circular economy businesses and become a genuinely resource-efficient global city.”
The project is receiving up to £628,936 of funding from the European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 in England.
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