Bringing businesses and innovators together to solve sustainability challenges will be the focus for the online launch of FreshPPact 2.0 by University of Northampton (UON) this month.
On Thursday 29 October, UON’s Centre for Sustainable Business Practices (CSBP) will launch FreshPPact 2.0. At the heart of the initiative is a simple principle: some of the biggest sustainability challenges facing businesses will not be solved by individual organisations working alone.
Bringing together the University of Northampton, Aston University, University of Hertfordshire and the Sustainable Business Alliance, FreshPPact 2.0 will connect businesses with researchers, innovators and other organisations that can bring ideas, expertise, solutions and potential routes to funding
The initiative will launch with its first challenges already identified, including challenges from Blue Skies and SEE Limited, providing practical opportunities for organisations to get involved from the outset.
Dr Chijoke Uba from the CSBP, said: “Some of the sustainability challenges businesses face are simply too big to solve on our own. We might understand the problem, but not have the research capability, technology, expertise or resources needed to find the solution.
“FreshPPact is about widening the net. Somewhere there may be a researcher, innovator, business or entrepreneur with exactly the expertise or idea we need – they could be within our existing networks, just around the corner, or on the other side of the world.
“FreshPPact 2.0 is about making those connections and then working together to turn good ideas into solutions that can be commercially viable, scalable and genuinely transformative.”
FreshPPact 2.0 builds on the experience of FreshPPact 1.0, which brought together businesses and researchers to tackle plastic pollution in fresh produce supply chains through the UK Government-funded Sustainable Manufacturing and Environmental Pollution (SMEP) Programme.
The launch event will draw lessons from FreshPPact 1.0, including its contribution to Ghana’s National Policy Blueprint for Plastic Alternatives and Non-Plastic Substitutes.
The CSBP hopes FreshPPact 2.0 will connect more businesses facing sustainability challenges with researchers, innovators and funding opportunities, helping accelerate the development of practical and scalable sustainable solutions.
Organisations can become involved by bringing forward sustainability challenges of their own, proposing potential solutions, contributing research or technical expertise, collaborating on existing challenges, or helping identify opportunities for funding and scale
The online launch takes place at 10am (UK time) on 29 October. Anyone interested in participating can register via Microsoft Teams.