Business Gateway and Scottish digital upskilling programme DigitalBoost have helped digital marketing firm Crunchy Carrots achieve Net Zero status.

The group’s Founder and Managing Director Scott Henderson received advice, support, and signposting to funding worth over £14,000.

Based in Falkirk, the digital marketing firm has a network extending across Scotland’s central belt, Edinburgh, and Glasgow.

Henderson previously approached Business Gateway in 2016 for help and advice on strategy planning and financial projections. Benefiting from 1:1 support from dedicated business and HR advisers, he received guidance from Scottish Enterprise’s financial readiness experts, and structure-based coaching from Skills Development Scotland.

With an aim to move to net-zero following Glasgow’s COP26 in 2021, Henderson approached Business Gateway to find out how to secure carbon neutral status.

He was signposted to Zero Waste Scotland, who carried out a full energy audit and helped Henderson to purchase an air source heat pump through the SME Loan Scheme, which successfully reduced the business’ carbon footprint by 75%.

As part of the support, Henderson Business Gateway also introduced him to experts from Strathclyde University, who helped him learn more about how to reduce the business’ carbon emissions and offsetting. As such, the Crunchy Carrots team now regularly plant trees to offset emissions generated from their everyday work.

Through Business Gateway, Crunchy Carrots has also benefitted from a range of development courses, which have been crucial for training and upskilling the team-of-ten. Skills Development Scotland’s Skills for Growth Programme, Business Gateway’s Expert Help strategy support, and Stirling University’s Help to Grow Management Course have all allowed the team to understand where they can add value to Crunchy Carrots’ everyday operations.

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Access to funding, including a Falkirk Council Business Resilience Fund grant worth £4,789, a Falkirk Council Business Adaption Fund grant worth £2,500, and a DigitalBoost Development Grant worth £6,000, have also been used for training the team on sales and processes, which was critical throughout the pandemic.

Henderson said: “Business Gateway has been such a fantastic support since I started Crunchy Carrots. My adviser was always quick to respond to any questions I had despite the challenges of the past couple of years, and this support has allowed us to access critical grant funding that has helped us become a carbon neutral business.

“I am very proud my business is now net-zero status, after we only embarked on this journey last year. I’ve no doubt this would have been far more challenging without the support from Business Gateway.”

Lesley Pickles, Business Gateway, said: “In today’s climate, achieving net-zero should be a priority for all businesses. It has been great to support Crunchy Carrots throughout their journey and I look forward to seeing what their future holds.”

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