Earlier this year, Jinny’s Bakery of Drumshanbo, Co Leitrim, became the first business in the country to avail of the Local Enterprise Office Green for Micro scheme which helps prepare small businesses for the low carbon, more resource efficient economy of the future.
Established by Sinead Gillard in 2003, Jinny’s started out selling home baked bread to local shops and has since grown to number several large retailers among its customers as well as hotels and restaurants throughout the west of Ireland and Dublin with annual sales of over €500,000 and more than 10 staff.
“It took years to build up the business,” says Pascal Gillard who joined his wife in the business in 2007. “We got small loans and help from the Local Enterprise Office over the years. We set up an online shop at the start of Covid-19 and we introduced a range of bread mixes as well. We have participated in three promotions with Aldi for our bread mixes.
Participation in the Green for Micro scheme came about almost by accident. “We were the first business in the country to avail of it,” says Gillard. “We were at a meeting to discuss Trading Online Voucher with the LEO and I mentioned that we were interested in taking part in the Bord Bia Origin Green programme. Joe Lowe in the Local Enterprise Office said they might be able to help in that area and told us about the Green for Micro scheme.”
The scheme offers businesses which employ less than 10 people two days free mentoring from a specialist green consultant who makes recommendations on specific changes which will assist them to reduce their carbon footprint and become more sustainable.
We help them to start their journey on the road to sustainable business practices
“The aim is to raise awareness among small businesses of how they can develop sustainable business practices and of the cost savings they can make as a result,” says Padraic McElwee, head of enterprise with Local Enterprise Office Clare, and chair of the national network of Local Enterprise Offices. “To be fair to small business owners, they are doing everything from boiling the kettle to serving the customers and they have very little time. Green for Micro provides them with a consultancy service to give them a helicopter view of the business to help them see the possibilities. We help them to start their journey on the road to sustainable business practices.”
The process is quite simple, according to McElwee. “The consultant sits down with the business owner and gets an understanding of the business and its customers and their expectations and of how the business meets customer needs. The consultant also looks at business costs, its energy costs, and so on. The consultant takes this high level strategic view and applies it in a practical setting with recommendations for actions to improve the business’s green credentials while improving overall sustainability.”
And those green credentials are becoming increasingly important for competitiveness. “We did some work recently in Shannon with firms supplying multinational companies. The multinationals have ambitious carbon reduction plans that apply to their supply chains as well. Irish companies need to improve their climate credentials if they are to continue to supply those customers. We will also see that happening with government and public sector bodies.”
Businesses interested in availing of the Green for Micro scheme should contact their Local Enterprise Office
For Jinny’s Bakery, the cost savings have been significant and immediate. “Our consultant came out and put some ideas down on paper,” says Gillard. “They told us what the big and small ideas were.”
The first action taken was the replacement of traditional lighting with LED bulbs. “We now have amazing lighting and have made a 75 per cent saving on our light bill. We received 50 per cent funding for that.”
Composting has also come in for attention. “We had been composting egg shells, coffee grains, carrot peelings, apples, grass and so on and wanted to do more of it. We bought a new composter for €1,000 and got a grant to help us with that as well. We now put less waste in our brown bin so that saves costs and we are able to use the compost for our vegetable garden where we grow salads and so on for our tearooms. We also started making croutons to cut down on bread waste. We have made about €9,000 savings in waste alone so far.”
The business has been praised for the circularity of its systems. “We use our own compost to grow the veg used in the tearooms and waste and leftovers from there go back to the composter. Obviously, we still have some waste still going to the brown bin, but it’s a lot less. You can’t do everything, but you can do something.”
Gillard believes Green for Micro has assisted in other ways beyond cost. “When we applied for a programme with a large retailer this year one of the questions related to sustainability. We were picked to participate again and that was a huge boost. We certainly would have scored well on the sustainability section.”
The business is also looking at ways to reduce packaging. “Covid-19 has been detrimental as we had to use more packaging in the online service. We are now offering reusable beeswax packaging to our customers for their baguettes and so on.”
Businesses interested in availing of the Green for Micro scheme should contact their Local Enterprise Office. “They should reach out to their local enterprise office,” says McElwee. “It’s a pilot intervention at the moment but I have no doubt that it will become a permanent feature of what we do.”
Pascal Gillard would certainly recommend it to other small firms. “It’s an absolute no brainer. You can save money, help the environment, and avail of financial incentives all at the same time. It’s a very good programme.”
Find out more information and apply for the Green for Micro programme before the June 30th deadline - LocalEnterprise.ie/Green