30 Green Deal Business Ideas You Might Not Have Had

Liz is speaking at Ecobuild on 21^st March, alongside Linn Rafferty of JTec Energy and Automation, about the business opportunities presented by Green Deal and how to capitalise on them through marketing and the provision of energy advice.To get ready for our Ecobuild session, we set ourselves a challenge: 10 minutes to create 30 Green Deal business ideas. We wanted to look beyond the obvious opportunities of Green Deal and identify some slightly different business ideas that we think could help to grow and develop the market.

Here are the 30 ideas that we came up with: we can’t guarantee the quality, feasibility or affordability of any of them, but we reckon there are a few gems in here. The point is: if you let yourself think creatively about something – whether it’s Green Deal, finding customers, developing products or changing behaviour – you’ll be amazed at where you can go!

1. A new type of installer: Training installers on sales, marketing and putting together packages of measures.

2. Location scout: Go exploring and find towns, villages, neighbourhoods which offer opportunities for area-based approaches.

3. The Big Society: Building relationships with community leaders to promote and develop neighbourhood schemes (why not start with the environmentally motivated groups, such as Transition Towns?).

4. One piece at a time: Break up the Green Deal Plan into manageable and affordable chunks for the householder, through a partial refurbishment approach.

5. Energy Upgrades: Offering an energy management service to domestic customers comprising a Green Deal and a continuous upgrade package (boiler renewal every five years, say).

6. Be sector-specific (1): A standard package of measures for the Bed and Breakfast sector (heat and hot water loads, with opportunities for microgeneration).

7. Be sector-specific (2): A standard package of measures for GPs practices (small premises, often converted houses, with daytime warmth and power needs).

8. Hello, can I interest you in...: Run your own lead-generation and sales force, working with advisers, supply chain companies and providers.

9. Get creative: Offer marketing consultancy to smaller supply chain companies who may not have in-house resource.

10. Find your soulmate(s): An internet dating service for customers to find providers and installers, and for supply chain organisations to build partnerships.

11. Break those habits: In-house / in-business training on using energy wisely (making the most of your Green Deal).

12. Extreme Makeover Home Edition: Home makeover services, starting with loft clearance, through measures, to redecoration, including interior design and furnishings.

13. People who bought this also bought...: The Amazon approach: selling on a package of measures beyond those that are eligible for Green Deal, for example, kitchen appliances as part of a boiler replacement / heating upgrade.

14. From A to B: Logistics planning for supply chain companies in an area, reducing product prices and cutting transport and distribution costs.

15. Behind the scenes: Back office services for smaller Green Deal Providers, for example, SMEs or community organisations that have a market opportunity but not the scale or capital to invest in their own back office teams (think: outsourced call centres).

16. Warm, safe, secure: Training Advisors and Installers on how to carry out home security and fire safety checks linking in to local referral schemes.

17. Mitigation and adaptation: Offer climate change adaptation measures and futureproofing as part of a Green Deal retrofit.

18. It’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you do with it that counts: Space management consultancy for families building extensions (eg, advice on choice of furniture or placement of sockets and light fittings).

19. Be sector-specific (3): Retrofits for the Small Office Home Office (SOHO) market, where there are non-standard occupancy patterns and both household and business gains to be made.

20. The difficult 4 million: It’s much more complex but what about trying to crack the market for retrofitting blocks of flats...?

21. A marketing channel?: If you’re up for the challenge of addressing blocks of flats, then how about working with Residents Associations and block managing agents to spread the word?

22. The IKEA approach: Creating modular packages of measures - the 4-bedroom detached package (perhaps “The Stockbroker”); the 3-bedroom terrace package - for easier marketing to consumers and for supply chain efficiency

23. Two weeks to change your life: Offer a lifestyle change service: the household goes on holiday (sustainably) and comes back to their dream home.

24. Be sector-specific (4): How about a package for golf clubs, with anaerobic digestors for food and plant waste? (Also a good excuse for nine holes before lunch!)

25. Cross the Ts: Become an accreditation body!

26. I Am The Law!: Things don’t always work out. Someone needs to be a legal adviser or an expert witness for disputes, non-payments and liability issues.

27. Join the Watchmen: Set up a monitoring and evaluation consultancy to carry out spot-checks and inspections for quality assurance.

28. Choose your customers: What about the Yummy Mummy market? Prospective parents spend a lot of time and money getting their home ready for their new arrival, and a Green Deal package can help create a warm, cosy home whilst also managing costs.

29. Raiders of the Lost Lofts: Homes with no loft hatches are unlikely to have ever been insulated. Start a viral campaign to spot the lost lofts and get them opened up! (This not only promotes insulation but also adds valuable, useable space to people’s homes.)

30. Ignore Green Deal completely: Bold, but remember that Green Deal is only one possible way of financing improvements. If your customers are happy and able to pay for your service out of savings or reserves, then don’t overcomplicate things!

Got some ideas of your own? Share them with us here or on Twitter - @se2limited – or, better yet, go and implement them!