Have you founded a nature-based enterprise, or you are at an early-stage of your development and need support to take you to the next level? Do you know someone who has?

Glasgow City Council’s Connecting Nature project, in partnership with The Melting Pot’s Good Ideas and Glasgow Caledonian University, has launched the Nature-Based Accelerator, a pilot programme to support early-stage impactful nature-based businesses and social enterprises that are or could be making positive environmental, social, and economic change in Glasgow.

A nature-based enterprise can include many different types of organisations such as social enterprises, a collective, charities or even a for-profit business. The key criteria is that nature is used either directly or indirectly as a fundamental part of their product, service or process whilst also supporting climate change, health and wellbeing and biodiversity policy agendas. Examples can include food or other community growing; beekeeping; nature-focused landscape architecture; eco-tourism; urban forestry; biomaterials; carbon off-setting; vocational & skills training plus lots more.  You can find more examples and more information about nature-based enterprises by checking out Connecting Nature’s simple guidebook (PDF).

Sean Vincent Kelly, Senior Connecting Nature Project Officer at Glasgow City Council, said:

"This is a real opportunity for budding nature-based entrepreneurs in Glasgow to get valuable support to grow their enterprise ideas and help us make a real contribution to more local and nature-friendly economies.”

The programme, which is 3 months fully-funded, aims to encourage more local and resilient nature-based economies, create more green jobs, and help us to achieve our net-zero targets. One of the main focusses of the pilot is on how we can use innovative enterprise ideas to help improve and maintain Glasgow’s open spaces.

Spaces are limited and applications should be received no later than 21st May 2021.

Find out more