businessinfomag.uk magazine 12 BULLETIN SUSTAINABILITY GREEN SHOOTS Research conducted to mark the launch of the first ever Amazon Launchpad Sustainability Accelerator highlights the value of sustainability to start-ups at a time when investors are paying more attention than ever to the subject. Key findings include: n startups with a strong sustainability profile can attract a 16% higher valuation from investors; n 70% of early-stage investors are requesting more detail on the sustainability strategy of startups before they decide to invest; n 83% of investors want to invest in more environmentally sustainable startups in the next 12 months; n 85% believe startups perform better in the long-term if they have sustainability built into their business models from the outset; n 59% of early-stage investors in Europe have declined an investment opportunity in the last year due to sustainability concerns. The Amazon Launchpad Sustainability Accelerator, delivered in partnership with EIT Climate-KIC, the EU’s climate innovation initiative, has grown out of Amazon Launchpad , which since 2015 has supported the launch of over 2,200 startups in Europe. It is based at Amazon’s London HQ and will help 12 start-ups, chosen out of 1,200 applications, to grow and scale their businesses through a support package worth more than £30,000, including an equity-free grant; AWS Activate Credits and Amazon Advertising credits; expert mentorship; a tailored curriculum; and strategic account support. All Accelerator participants will complete a Climate Impact Assessment by Impact Forecast to help ensure their products are quantifiably more sustainable than existing solutions. MENTORING GOING FOR GROWTH Eighteen new early-stage tech start-ups have joined Manchester’s Enterprise City Exchange scale-up support scheme, delivered with the support of Tech Nation. They will join 13 existing members now entering a second term on the six-month programme. The third cohort of Exchange start-ups from the healthtech, proptech, edtech, fintech, agritech and e-commerce sectors will be hoping to scale, secure funding, grow operations and expand their teams during the course of the scheme. They will be following in the footsteps of PixelMax, the 3D virtual workplace business, which raised £2 million and reached an £8 million valuation while on the programme; My First Five Years, an early-years edtech start-up that secured £1.4 million in investment; and Sparkbox, a data analytics and business intelligence start-up, which raised £1.5 million to support its next phase of growth. www.enterprisecityuk.com/exchange LAW BECOME A DISCRIMINATION FIRST RESPONDER In a UK first, Valla, the online legal platform that helps workers resolve employment issues by representing themselves, has launched new training to help people become ‘first responders’ when they see or hear about racism, sexism or other discrimination at work. Valla co-founders Danae Shell and Kate Ho decided to set up Discrimination First Aider training after conducting hundreds of interviews for their DIY legal platform and realising that people often don’t fight workplace discrimination because they don’t have anyone to turn to in the critical first few days after an incident. Danae Shell said: “I know from experience what it feels like to hear about shocking behaviour at work and not know how to help.We’ve created this training for everyone who has ever seen something go wrong at work and has felt helpless to stop it.” Discrimination First Aider training, covering the basics of equality law, how to spot issues as they arise and how to support someone going through workplace discrimination, costs £39 for individuals and £99 for businesses. Valla, which launched its first selfrepresentation kit in February 2022, meets growing demand for affordable legal services by simplifying legal paperwork and allowing people to collect evidence, generate forms and send letters themselves without paying for a law firm.When they need legal advice, people can share their case with a lawyer on Valla’s platform at a fraction of the usual price. www.valla.uk valla.uk/discrimination-first-aid-training RECYCLING SECOND LIFE FOR PPE A partnership between Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Imperial Health Charity and Britain’s biggest PPE manufacturer Globus Group could see millions of face masks and other items of PPE recycled into new products for the NHS including operating theatre clogs, plastic bed pans, medical scrubs, disposable syringes and even prosthetic finger joints. Every year 6 billion items of PPE, including around 1 billion face masks, are distributed in the NHS for use by doctors, nurses and hospital staff. This number increased dramatically during the Covid-19 pandemic, with Imperial College Healthcare getting through more than 9.8 million Type IIR surgical face masks in a single 13-month period. Over the next 18 months Imperial College Healthcare and Globus plan to explore ways to collect used PPE across the Trust’s five hospital sites and evaluate the potential for plastic materials to be recycled and repurposed into new products for use in the NHS. Dr Bob Klaber, Director of Strategy, Research & Innovation at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “This partnership with Globus Group is one of the first to address the growing issue of plastic waste in hospitals across the NHS arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.With increased PPE usage becoming the new normal in hospital settings, managing waste is a problem that isn’t going away. It’s more important than ever that across healthcare we’re doing everything we can to reduce our environmental impact. The project will explore the feasibility of efficiently collecting and recycling masks used in our hospitals. If the proof of concept can be demonstrated and shown to be effective then the model could be adopted more widely.” https://globusgroup.com
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