The go-ahead has been given for Low Carbon South West (LCSW), a trade association that hopes to make the South West a hotspot for environmental technologies and services.

LCSW was created from the merger between the Bristol Environment Technologies and Services Initiative (BETS) and the environmental division of the University of Bath’s Innovation Centre (BIC), which will promote green industries within the area. The LCSW will be the largest trade organisation of its kind within the UK.

Based in Bristol, the body is funded by both the public and the private sector. Several companies are already members of the group, including a number of manufacturers, designers, and consultants. The organisation aims to recruit even more members to influence the government’s green policies.

Chairman of LCSW, Alan Bailey, said: “We have created Low Carbon South West as it was a natural extension of the separate activities of BETS and BIC in the environmental sector. It made sense to bring these two organisations together and to work in association with other environmental sector bodies, companies and organisations to fulfil a regional remit to put the South West on the map as a UK hub for innovation, collaboration and growth in the green industries sector.”

Bailey added: "It also fulfils the regional agenda to promote the South West to national and international businesses and other organisations in order to attract inward investment and thereby support job creation and the future wellbeing of our economy, critical in these challenging times."