Sustainable Peckham is working towards a cleaner, greener Peckham where local businesses support each other to be more sustainable in a thriving local community.

99.9% of all businesses in the UK are small to medium-sized and 96% of these are micro businesses, with just 0 – 9 employees. Often overstretched, micro businesses don't have the capacity to consider sustainability and climate as a priority, yet the sheer number of these businesses mean their combined impact could be huge if they are supported with the right tools and information to introduce sustainable business practices.

Sustainable Peckham is a new project from the team behind award winning group Plastic Free Peckham, focusing on small local businesses and the ethos of the triple bottom line: People, Planet and Profit. It will bring together a group of local Peckham businesses from different industries to collaborate and find ways to reduce their impact on the environment and the effects of climate change on the local community. 

We will deliver carbon literacy training, circular economy workshops, one to one mentoring and group workshop sessions to find solutions to common and individual problems such as waste on our high streets, poor air quality and carbon emissions.

The results will be a set of tools and resources specific to a range of businesses and industries. These will be made available on a community hub, encouraging other businesses to use the tools available to reduce their carbon footprint with a view to extending across Southwark. 

The money raised with Aviva will support outreach to local businesses as well as the creation and delivery of the training and resources on offer to them. Depending on the funds raised, they could also help to build the community hub where the resources and frameworks will be housed to ensure the entire community can benefit from the programme delivered with the initial businesses.

Sustainable Peckham is borne from Plastic Free Peckham - a local community group founded in 2018. A volunteer team help businesses, schools and the Council reduce the amount of single use plastic in our community. We educate children on why single use plastic is so problematic, advise businesses on how to reduce the amount of plastic they use, and work with the council and community groups to drive change.