These days the environment is hardly a fringe topic, yet businesses that make the move towards the big “S” can often feel isolated and unsupported. The Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce has recently decided to put their weight behind both sustainable businesses and those who want to head in that direction.

The Green Chamber Group was set up in March this year and there are already 50 businesses on the books. The group was the idea of Clare Hall, who runs Hall Creative, a design agency which works with environmental organisations.

She says, “There are so many green businesses in Brighton and Hove and a lot of interest in the chamber about being green so it just seemed a natural progression to get a group together.”

Those 50 organisations don’t attend every meeting but are made up of a wide range of businesses including an ethical accountant, a search engine optimisation company and a carbon footprinting firm.

Clare says it is still early days and they are figuring out what they are able to do with the members available and what direction it will go in. The ultimate aim, however, is to be an advisory body for local organisations, a way for them to collaborate and run sustainability related projects together and to act as a support network for those who need it.

She says, “We’re meeting, networking, building bridges between members and getting to know each other so we can hopefully move on to bigger and better things in the near future.”