Tevi has been granted a two year project extension.

Tevi business support to continue until December 2022

Tevi has been granted a two year project extension to continue supporting Small & Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) across Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly to transition to more sustainable ways of working.

Tevi’s unique offer helps to develop Cornwall’s circular economy whilst supporting Cornwall’s Environmental Growth Strategy. The work is led by the University of Exeter, and is delivered in partnership with the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Cornwall Council and the Cornwall Development Company.

Over the last two years Tevi has had a number of notable successes including:

• Developing data driven environmental decision making through Lagas.co.uk
• Helping to find solutions to some of the county’s most pressing environmental challenges through the Tevi Challenge Network
• Supporting small businesses find innovative ways to work more sustainably
• Distributing grant funding to support a variety of new projects
• Sharing best practice from international experts amongst the Cornish business community

The extension will allow Tevi to continue working with SMEs across the county until December 2022 with an additional £125,500 to be allocated through Tevi grant funding.

Tevi Project Manager Dan Bloomfield said:

“Following an external evaluation, we know that our approach must be to build upon what we have done to date, and extend our ambition to reach more businesses and to work more fully with them. Although the second phase of Tevi will be more streamlined, we want to make sure that it keeps the holistic, bespoke delivery model that has been valued so much by participating enterprises to date.

We are delighted to be able to continue supporting the Cornish business community for an extended period and will be inviting new and existing clients to join us on the journey to developing sustainable business practice that fulfils our future needs.”

In 2020 Tevi adapted to working through the restrictions caused by the Coronavirus pandemic by moving business support, training workshops, and knowledge exchange sessions online.

Ben Rowswell (Tevi Communications Manager) describes the change in approach:

“The act of moving our delivery online was a real challenge for the Tevi team to start with as all our support had been facilitated face to face with businesses across the county until that point. It was a learning experience for both the team and the businesses that we support, but has resulted in us becoming expert at delivering transformative and engaging training sessions online”.

Tevi have attracted an international following and have collaborated with experts across the world to upskill the Cornish business community in developing business practices that develop Cornwall’s circular economy. When asked about the Lagas platform Dr Stephen Lowe, (University of Exeter Industrial Impact Fellow) commented:

“Lagas has been developed by the University of Exeter to allow Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly to develop sustainably along the course laid out by the region’s Environmental Growth Strategy, highlighting opportunities to grow our environment and to improve the condition of key habitats and landscapes. This will help us to put biodiversity net gain at the forefront of the ongoing development of the region and to plot a clear route to environmental growth.

Data will be continually added to Lagas, which includes a mapping platform flexible enough to cover a wide range of data related to economic, social and environmental intelligence. We hope that Lagas provides a clear example of one of the ways in which counties, regions and nations can engage with environmental and biodiversity net gain goals, as we face new challenges and develop new solutions together.”

Date: 13 January 2021