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Sharing knowledge for sustainable enterprise

We work with businesses of all sizes to enable new ideas, innovation, and growth towards sustainability goals. See how you can get involved.

Resources for enterprise and entrepreneurship

If you're a business owner, manager, or entrepreneur with an interest in sustainability, we'd love to work with you.

Some of our current initiatives to support our local economy include:

  • offering Knowledge Transfer Partnerships between the University, companies and graduates to share knowledge and aid business growth
  • offering workspaces, enterprise activities, and networking through the Bath Innovation Centre
  • providing investment and growth support for start-ups and SMEs through SETsquared, a business incubator set up by the universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey
  • offering bespoke business support and coaching to companies in the West of England, through the Sustainable Technologies Business Acceleration Hub

Supporting student innovation for sustainability

Read about some of the student-led businesses we've supported.

Dr Helen Liang and LabCycle

Helen Liang speaking at an event

After attending a SETsquared event in 2019, Bath alumna Helen Liang set up LabCycle: a company that specialises in the recycling of single-use plastic waste from research labs and medical settings. Since starting, LabCycle has won many awards, including £99,992 of funding from SBRI Healthcare in 2024 to focus on the decontamination and recycling of single-use plastics from the NHS.

Read more about LabCycle and how SETsquared and alumni funding supports Helen’s work.

Dr Nav Sawhney and The Washing Machine Project

Nav Sawhney speaking at an event

Nav Sawhney, graduate of the Department of Social & Policy Sciences, is the founder of the Washing Machine Project, a social enterprise set up to bring low-cost, manual washing machines to refugee camps. The project created the Divya, the world’s first flat-packable washing machine that helps save up to 50% of water and 75% of the time needed to handwash clothes.

The Divya is now used in 15 countries and helps almost 30,000 people. Find out more about the project.

Giovanna Laudisio and Naturbeads

Giovanna and her colleagues wearing lab coats

Bath MBA alumna, Giovanna Laudisio, co-founded Naturbeads, a startup company that has created innovative biodegradable cellulose ‘microspheres’ to replace microplastics in consumer and industrial products.

The company received £7.8 million from investors in 2024 to create a new production plant.

Read more of Giovanna’s story.

Connecting businesses with student talent

Employability is a key strength of our degree programmes.

All our students have opportunities to work with businesses, charities and entrepreneurs, both nationally and internationally. This helps them to develop the sustainability skills and applied experience they need to excel in their future careers and make meaningful positive change.

Businesses can benefit from these initiatives by:

  • working with ambitious students who are passionate about advocating for sustainability during placements and internships at their company or charity
  • receiving insights and solutions to sustainability-related business problems from student project groups
  • gaining enthusiastic and well-trained team members by recruiting and developing graduate talent for permanent sustainability-focused roles

Projects and opportunities with a sustainability focus include:

  • work placements in sectors such as energy, architecture, transport systems, chemical engineering, construction, management, marketing and charities
  • Vertically Integrated Projects, including the Carers Centre carbon reduction journey, the Environment Leaders Programme and ‘Slow The Flow’, a project to conserve water across the region
  • Faculty-specific projects, like the Rotork Community Challenge and the Sustainable Business Challenge for School of Management MSc students

Engage, work with, or hire our students

If you’re a business owner or hiring manager, find out more about working with students with strong sustainability skills, knowledge and experience.

Sharing knowledge with businesses

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) is a UK-wide programme funded by Innovate UK. The aim of the programme is to improve the competitiveness, productivity and performance of businesses.

Sustainability-focused KTPs at Bath include:

  • working with K2 Corporate Mobility to help it offer more environmentally sustainable relocation packages to business clients moving their employees around the globe
  • working with manufacturer ZeroAvia to help meet its goal of developing zero-emission engines for commercial aircraft
  • working with Bath ASU, a supplier of pharmaceutical products to the UK hospital sector to extend the shelf-life of pharmaceutical products

Engage with our KTPs

If you’re a business owner, find out more about KTPs at Bath.

Students and business people in a workshop

Find out more about our sustainable university

Sustainable Bath

Contact us

If you have any questions about sustainability at Bath, get in touch.