Bristol’s status of European Green Capital of the Year for 2015 rocketed eco-friendly practices to the forefront of business consciousness. Here at Quarter, we put education at the forefront of our efforts with a dedicated green committee leading the way. Our first step was to raise awareness and train staff in green practices and energy saving habits. By starting within our own ranks we hoped the message we were championing would be more sincerely passed on. We also made a conscious effort to work with green companies, such as GDS, Solarsense and Greenwoods Furniture, on projects to ensure going forward our businesses leave as little a carbon footprint as possible.

Bristol has a long heritage of entrepreneurialism and innovation with small businesses and start-ups thriving in our active and engaged city. Since the introduction of various eco-focussed funding schemes, the number of exciting green projects coming out of the city has increased.

Here are some of the most exciting we have come across.

Grow Bristol:
An urban farm running out of recycled shipping containers, Grow Bristol is an innovative company farming fish and veg to sell directly to local restaurants. Using hydroponic and aquaponic systems, they are able to grow produce in this unlikely environment and reduce food miles for the city’s restaurants massively.

Bee The Change:
Bee The Change works to raise awareness and appreciation of the environment and encouraging a move towards a more sustainable way of interacting with it. By understanding why bees are suffering and what actions in the wider environment have caused it, it is possible to re-shape conventional and harmful practices into healthy and respectful ones. They achieve this through education in schools, setting up community beehives, running sustainable beekeeping courses and more…

Fusion Processing:
Fusion Processing’s CycleEye has been developed using high performance radar and imaging techniques. It is a device which allows drivers to know when someone is cycling close to their vehicle, thereby reducing the possibility of a collision – particularly useful for large vehicles such as buses and in urban cities where roads can not be adapted to include cycle paths.

ShowerBoB:
Not all green innovation has to be at the cutting edge of technology to be effective. This simple, functional device promotes behavioral change and challenges views on water consumption. By reducing the amount of time spent in the shower from 7 minutes to 4 minutes we can not only reduce the amount of water we use, but also save on the energy used to heat and pump the water. For every 1 minute cut from each shower, £215 million of the UK’s collective energy bill is saved.