The North East is home to hundreds of thousands of businesses, and as a result has a huge community of entrepreneurs creating conferences and events to help take businesses to the next level. Local events are perfect for businesses who want to network with other companies, meet entrepreneurs in their community, develop their skills and grow their organisation.
On Wednesday 19th February 2025, Durham will be hosting Get Set Green; a conference to help businesses become more environmentally sustainable. This event will bring business owners, organisations and colleagues together to help those in the local area address challenges in making their services more sustainable.
Why businesses need to prioritise environmental sustainability
So why should businesses consider environmental sustainability? Not only is becoming more environmentally sustainable likely to reduce operational costs (particularly when energy costs are soaring), it is also likely to make your company more attractive to investors, employees and customers alike. Environmentally sustainable businesses produce less waste, conserve more energy, and help to protect the planet.
The UK Government’s target is for all sectors of the UK economy to meet their net zero target by 2050. This means that by 2050, the aim is that greenhouse gases produced by every sector in the UK will be completely negated; all the greenhouse gases that we produce should be removed through things like planting trees, which absorb carbon dioxide. Many businesses and organisations are looking at their own practices to consider how they are going to adjust and adapt the way that they work in order to meet net zero.
However, Durham County Council’s aim is to reach net zero a whole 20 years ahead of the UK Government’s plan, and has set out their goal for the entirety of County Durham to be net zero by 2045. The Get Set Green conference will be helping organisations in the County to try and meet that target.
What is Get Set Green?
Get Set Green is an annual conference hosted by Business Durham, the business support service for County Durham, and Durham County Council’s Low Carbon Team. It is also being sponsored by the Durham Business Growth Program, which helps organisations in Durham grow and develop.
The conference will host a number of exhibitions, including, ‘Businesses with innovative ground breaking sustainability and net zero technologies, renewable energy specialists…business support programmes and networks who can aid businesses on their net zero journey, and Net Zero Meet the Buyer opportunities.’
There will also be a number of workshops that businesses can attend, including, ‘An Introduction to Biodiversity Net Gain, Power Roll's Path to Innovation and Growth, Accelerating the Green Transition: Tools for Unlocking Strategic Innovation…[and] Electricity and Net Zero: What Businesses Need to Know.’ These workshops and exhibitions promise to support organisations who are struggling to know how to meet net zero, as well as those who are well on the way to meeting the net zero target.
If you’re interested in attending Get Set Green 2025, you can register for a ticket on Durham Business Growth’s website. Tickets are free, and there is no requirement to attend the full day of the conference.
