Circular Economy Business Grants

Lewisham Council is managing the fund. We offer grants to help fund eco-friendly, reuse and or repair projects in the borough to:

• sole traders
• creatives
• small to medium businesses

We are looking for businesses who want to help make the borough greener, cleaner, more resourceful and efficient. Applications that clearly explain how a grant will help your company to waste less, cut back on using fossil fuels and or take other positive environmental actions are more likely to be successful.

Available funding

There are 10 grants of up to £1,000 each.

Why we are offering grants

Climate change will affect us all in Lewisham, whether through supply chain challenges, hotter summers, flooding or increased energy bills. But there are many brilliant ways we can help reduce these risks, such as reducing how much fuel or packaging we use. The transition to a circular economy will provide new opportunities whilst helping to protect our local and global communities from the effects of climate change.

We welcome ideas that can help you cut down on your energy usage and the amount of waste you create, or that enable your customers to shop locally with less plastic packaging. This also helps us save money.

Who can apply

Individuals or teams on behalf of businesses who:

• are based in the borough of Lewisham
• own 100% of the business or are majority shareholders
• have an organisational bank account or be in the process of setting up a business bank account

We also accept applications from social enterprises, CICs, co-operatives and charities.

What we will fund

Funding is available to support a broad range of business costs, providing that you can demonstrate how the expenditure will support the growth of your business. For example, grants could be given for:

• equipment that will help a business achieve lower energy usage
• equipment that will help a business use less single-use plastic or create less waste
• materials/stock for a new low or zero-waste product line
• product development
• community building and partnerships with local groups
• prototypes
• website/booking system build
• training in repair or retrofitting services
• campaigns to help change customer behaviour