Context: The Green Growth Platform (hereafter GGP) is a five-year program aimed aiding businesses grow, network and expand in the environmental sector. It is funded by HEFCE (higher education funding council for England), which promotes innovation and research for higher education.

Initiatives: the GGP functions both as a networking platform (it has a directory of affiliated businesses which can communicate to each other through the GGP website, and it offers services to students who wish to contact the environmental businesses the Platform supports), and as a consulting/training entity for businesses and individuals. The GGP organises support for individual businesses, training in skills and management, the procurement of funds for start-ups, and events aimed at building a “community of businesses” in the sector.

Suggestions: the GGP platform is easy to find if one is looking for it specifically, by name. It is quite the meandering path to obtain a link from the University of Brighton website and the contacts section only has one email address. Other than that, there is all the relevant information online and the staff is friendly once reached. The only obstacle to participation is that it is quite a specialised initiative, which means only businesses and students can get involved directly. However, the directory of businesses supported by the GGP should prove useful to any citizen in search of green businesses that have been assessed for sustainability by a reliable entity.