Sharing green knowledge with global community

Mar 11 2010 by Iain Laing, The Journal

AN innovative Gateshead company is set to spread its environmental know-how far and wide with the help of a £50,000 investment from regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers.

The Environmental Academy is a leading supplier of online and classroom-based environmental and energy management training courses and consultancy services.

It is primarily using the new investment from Evolve Finance, NEL’s debt and mezzanine finance division, to develop new programmes on its e-commerce platform, which will enable them to offer an expanded portfolio of courses to both domestic and overseas customers.

And the company is hoping that the growing demand for its expertise, especially from industries with high sustainability requirements, such as oil and gas, will eventually lead to an expansion of the 12-strong team based at Gateshead’s Watermark development.

Founded by Rita Callender in 2006, the firm helps companies to meet standards including the ISO 14001 environmental and BS EN ISO16001 energy management accreditation.

Its courses are fully accredited by a number of UK awarding bodies, including the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment and the Institute of Leadership and Management. Ms Callender said: “The importance, awareness and understanding of environmental matters amongst the business community has increased exponentially since I began working in the field more than a decade ago.

“Environmental Academy has succeeded by helping companies meet their obligations in this area, often making significant cost savings for them in the process, and we know that there are even greater commercial opportunities out there for us to address.

“Offering our courses online provides maximum flexibility for our learners, and means they can be accessed and implemented anywhere – and as we don’t need to travel to make them available, it has the added benefit of minimising the carbon footprint of our operations.”

She said the business was increasingly looking at breaking into English-speaking markets in other countries and plans eventually to translate its courses so they could get into other countries, including China.

“We knew we needed to get a new funding stream into the company to put our new development plans into action, and were also looking for some business mentoring support alongside the investment – NEL has provided both of these,” she added.

Simon Johnson, senior investment executive at Evolve Finance, adds: “Environmental Academy offers impressive expertise in an expanding niche market, as well as a clear vision of how it will make the best commercial use of this over the coming years.”