An 18-week Growth Plan programme to enable the next phase of your growth whilst embedding your businesses Net Zero ambitions.

The Ready for Net Zero Growth programme helps your business take a leap on its growth trajectory with a focus on embedding your businesses Net Zero ambitions within your growth plan. Our 18-week Net Zero Growth Plan process shows you how to critically review your business, asks challenging questions, and thoroughly interrogates what is and isn’t working. The programme will also enable you to understand your carbon footprint and why it matters, as well as make a plan to reduce emissions and reap the rewards of doing so as part of your growth strategy.

Whether you want to transform your company from a life-style business into a fast-growth business, make sure you can survive the impact of Covid-19 and leaving the EU, or you want to take the opportunities available to grow your business to the next level, the Ready for Net Zero Growth programme will support you to achieve your goal.

We use the same Growth Plan process used in the highly successful and popular Business Growth Programme, which in its thirty-year history has helped over 3,000 businesses to grow better. We will introduce you to the relevant business concepts so that you can apply these to your business. You will also be encouraged to engage with your fellow business owners and managers on the programme, supporting each other to succeed.

As a result of this journey, you will be clearer about the vision for your company, the next steps you have to take to achieve it, and how to grow your network of support, business advisors and contacts. Going through this proven process will get you the results faster than just working through the frameworks alone.

The Ready for Net Zero Growth Programme aims to equip participants with:

  • Awareness of the relationship between climate change and emissions, and an understanding of how their organisation contributes to global warming through scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions
  • Methods, tools, technologies and techniques to measure current emissions, set future science-based targets to reduce those emissions, and track progress over time
  • Practical steps they can take to make their operations, products and services less carbon intensive, and therefore more attractive to customers
  • Knowledge of how they can derive commercial benefits from their decarbonisation through reporting, reduced operational costs, and via marketing to drive sales growth
  • A growth plan for the future that embeds their business’s net zero ambitions.

The programme concludes with participants making a pledge to the UN’s Race to Net Zero Initiative as a visible commitment to their Net Zero ambitions.

Programme information

  • Dates
    • 26 Feb - 18 Jun 2025
  • Duration18 weeks
  • LocationOnline
  • Cost£4,750

Why do I need a Ready for Net Zero Growth Programme?

Research shows that businesses with a detailed business plan are 33% more successful than businesses without a plan and that 66% of the fastest growing businesses in the UK have written business plans. Additionally, COP26 and the UK Government’s Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener demonstrate that for businesses to succeed in the future their Net Zero ambitions need to be fully embedded within their business plans.

The Cranfield Ready for Net Zero Growth Plan approach helps businesses to increase their chances of success by providing a framework to answer the following four key questions: 1) Where to compete? 2) How to understand and reduce your carbon footprint? 3) How to compete? 4) How to get there?

Ready for Net Zero Growth roadmap

This Net Zero Growth Plan will enable you to communicate your vision and actions to others, for example, your staff, customers, banks, investors, and other key stakeholders. It will demonstrate that you have analysed the environment in which you are operating – including the threats and opportunities for your business when seeking to reach your Net Zero ambitions that you truly understand your customers and your target markets, that you are in control of your finances and that you have a plan to achieve your goals.


What will I get from the Ready For Net Zero Growth Programme?

During the programme you will:

  • Define and review the purpose of your business,
  • Analyse your business to understand where and how to compete in the market and the industry in which your business operates,
  • Scrutinise your business’ cash flow to identify the right sources of funding to help your business grow,
  • Analyse the carbon footprint of your business to understand how to decarbonise your operations, products, and services,
  • Identify threats and opportunities for your business as you seek to decarbonise and how you can derive commercial benefits from these,
  • Identify your customer and value proposition to optimise your Business Model,
  • Determine what steps you need to take to develop a high performing team, and
  • Develop and prepare a comprehensive Net Zero Growth Plan for your business.

At the end of the programme you will pitch your Net Zero Growth Plan to an expert panel and will receive personalised feedback.

What does the Ready for Net Zero Growth Programme look like?

This online programme consists of the following components and the key dates are shown below.

The main programme
The main programme consists of two half-day online workshops and nine online modules.

Introduction workshop
The aim of this workshop is to familiarise you with your fellow participants, the programme structure and our programme team.

The nine online modules

Programme structure

  • Each module helps you to analyse your business through different lenses. You will work through these modules in your own time. Generally this will take 45-60 minutes per module.
  • At the end of each module, you will submit an assignment that will help you to apply the concepts learnt from the module to your own business. The more time you spend on this exercise, the more you get out of the programme.  Previous participants have spent between 45 minutes-3 hours per week on these assignments.

Tutorials
After each module, an online tutorial will be held. These tutorials will help you to summarise the key learnings, share ideas between all participants and give you an opportunity to ask questions. These tutorials will be facilitated by our Programme Delivery Team.

1:1 Coaching
After modules 3, 6 and 9, you will have a 1 hour 1:1 coaching session with one of our business advisors. This will enable you to ask specific questions about your business and our business advisor will highlight areas that you should focus on. The coaching session at the end of module 7 will be with a carbon specialist to help you to hone and define your business’s Net Zero ambitions.

Net Zero Growth Plan Presentation Workshop
After successful completion of the programme modules, you will have analysed your business and defined a vision for its future. To test your plan and your message, you will present your Net Zero Growth Plan to an expert panel of business advisors, successful entrepreneurs and investors to receive their feedback.

What is the time commitment for the programme? 

The key advantage of this programme is that all modules are online and can be worked on at any point during the time the module is active.

Day 1 – Programme introduction
The programme introduction will be a half-day event from 9:30am – 12:00 noon.

Nine online modules

  • On average each module will take 3 hours a week to complete via remote online learning, wider reading of reference materials and completion of assignments.
  • After every module there will be a 1 hour live tutorial which is also recorded and can be watched in your own time.

Three 1:1 coaching sessions
1 hour online meeting for 1:1 coaching regarding your own business.

Preparation of the Net Zero Growth Plan
Minimum of 3 hours each week in the final two weeks, dedicated to preparation of your final Net Zero Growth Plan.

Net Zero Growth Plan presentation day
This will be a day event online from 9:00am – 4:00pm.


Programme dates

February 2025 鈥 June 2025 cohort

Welcome Day – Weds 26th February 2025 (10:00am-12:30pm)

Module 1 – Wednesday 5th March (10:00-11:00am)

Module 2 – Wednesday 12th March (10:00-11:00am)

Module 3 – Wednesday 19th March (10:00-11:00am)

First 1:2:1s with Business Growth Advisor to be booked - 24th – 28th March

Module 4 – Wednesday 2nd April (10:00-11:00am)

Module 5 – Wednesday 23rd April (10:00-11:00am)

Module 6 – Wednesday 30th April (10:00-11:00am)

Net Zero Special Tutorial – Wednesday 14th May (10:00-11:00am)

1:2:1 with a Net Zero expert to be booked – 12th – 23rd May

Module 7 – Wednesday 21st May (10:00-11:00am)

Module 8 – Wednesday 28th May (10:00-11:00am)

Module 9 – Wednesday – 4 June (10:00-11:00am)

Final 1:2:1s with Business Growth Advisor to be booked 9th – 13th June

Growth Plan Presentation Day – Wednesday 18th June (10:00am – 16:00pm)


Professor Phil Hart

鈥淭his is a great example of the unique offerings Cranfield can make to industry. It鈥檚 not necessarily obvious that a net zero transition, if done correctly, can be an opportunity for business growth.鈥

鈥淭his program teams the business expertise from Cranfield School of Management with the technical prowess of our sustainable engineering leaders within the School of Water, Energy and the Environment, to provide the practical tools and techniques needed for companies to reduce their climate impact and gain real commercial advantage by doing so.鈥

Professor Phil Hart, Director of Energy and Power,

Cost

How much does the programme cost?

£4,750


I am interested, how can I learn more?

If you have any questions about Ready for Net Zero Growth, please get in touch and we will be happy to schedule a call with you. 



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