I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year. I trust that you are all now settled back in at work after the festive break. In this, the first EnviroCluster news bulletin, I would like to draw your attention to the upcoming Ambassador's Dinner in Peterborough on February 20th. We are planning on hosting an EnviroCluster table at the event to showcase the strength of the sector, but also to get involved with the excellent networking opportunities at this event. If you would like to be part of the EnviroCluster table, please contact me before Friday 16th January! Full details can be found below.

Gareth Jones
EnviroCluster Manager

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Click here to view the EnviroCluster events calendar.

The first series of Eco Innovation Centre Breakfast Meetings commences on February 5th with a talk by PECT on Carbon Footprinting and how your organisation can measure it's carbon usage. All the breakfast meetings will take place from 7.45am in the Eco Innovation Centre and are completely free. The series is as follows:

February 5th 2009 - Carbon Footprinting
Clare Watters (PECT)

February 12th 2009 -

February 19th 2009 - BizGrowthEast
Jamie Murray (EEDA)

February 26th 2009 - Peterborough Environment Capital
Speaker: Trevor Gibson (Opportunity Peterborough) and Nick Goodman (GPP)

To reserve a place at any, or all of the meetings, please email Gareth Jones using g.jones@ukceed.org

A £250 million plan to burn rubbish using the latest "green" technology has been given vital backing.

When plans for a waste-burning incinerator came before Peterborough City Council at a four-hour extraordinary meeting last night it was expected to ignite controversy, but instead it was welcomed as a boost for Peterborough's aim to be the environment capital of Britain.

Councillors voted in favour of the state-of-the art energy park, which would be built on a site off Storeys Bar Road in Fengate, saying it would bring a number of positive benefits including new jobs and new technology and will produce clean, green energy.

If the plan is endorsed by the council's cabinet on February 2, it will almost certainly clear the way for the Government to give it the go-ahead. But, Peterborough could eventually have two incinerators just yards apart, as the council plans to build its own to cope with the city's rubbish.

The meeting allowed councillors to air their views about Peterborough Renewable Energy Ltd (PREL)'s plans for its energy-recovery incinerator and was supported by 33 councillors, with just two voting against, and cabinet members abstaining until their own meeting.

However, planning officers, while broadly in favour of the plan, said more information was needed in vital areas, including road access issues, safety concerns regarding the proximity to gas pipelines, and justification on developing the site in the countryside close to Flag Fen.

To read the rest of the story, click here.

Beyond 2010 is giving businesses in the East of England access to sector specific training advice and funding for new skills to harness their full potential.

Our team of experienced specialists are working with SMEs to both identify higher level training opportunities that will provide a targeted solution to training needs and help them to access up to 50% of the cost of that training.

Beyond 2010 is funded by the European Social Fund and East of England Development Agency and managed by the Essex Development & Regeneration Agency.

The project works alongside Train to Gain to ensure that businesses can get the skills training that they need. Businesses employing up to 250 staff can contact specialist sector advisors who are able to discuss training needs in detail and agree with the business which training course will best meet their needs. Up to half of the cost of training is available from EEDA and the European Social Fund.

UK CEED is able to deliver grants to businesses working in the area of low carbon and sustainable technologies.

To apply for a training grant in the environment, low carbon or sustainable technologies sector, contact Gareth Jones at EnviroCluster on 01733 311644.

Beyond 2010 is managed by ExDRA and is the follow-up to the successful Towards 2010 programme which assisted nearly 2,400 businesses to train over 8,800 of their staff in areas that would make a tangible difference to business performance.

Please register for free at www.envirocluster.net

If you work for an environmental company or organisation in the Greater Peterborough area (see map) then get involved with EnviroCluster and register with the site for free. This will give you access to the entire site where you can find information on business opportunities, business and social networking events, access to your own control panel where you can submit your own news and events to the site, registration for frequent EnviroCluster email bulletins, and a listing in the members directory. If your organisation is already in the directory, then sign-up to edit your listing. Please encourage all of your colleagues to register with EnviroCluster to make us an even stronger EGS community in Peterborough.

EnviroCluster seeks to support and develop Greater Peterborough's environmental goods and services sector by identifying and exploiting business opportunities and by encouraging start-ups. EnviroCluster also attracts inward investment through networking activities and demonstration projects. EnviroCluster is privately-funded and is led by UK CEED. The initiative is also helping Peterborough to become the UK's Environment Capital.