Business West supports Bristol based business to drive Net Zero through supply chains

Business West has supported its member,TISCreport, to secure funding for its new initiative, Project Vana, through Innovate UK. 

Vana, which is the name of the technology platform, was created with the mission of enabling and fuelling government and corporate activism to mitigate the impact of climate change. It aggregates what is called ‘eco-transparency data’ through HM land registry which reveals disused corporate land and joins it up with communities who want to take action on afforestation opportunities.

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is clear on the benefits of afforestation: trees in cities combat climate change both directly, by storing carbon, and indirectly, by cooling urban areas down – thereby reducing energy demands.

Jaya Chakrbarti, CEO of TISCreport and President of Business West said:

“Corporations grow to such a size that things get compartmentalised into marketing and finance and compliance, and sales. And a lot of these different departments don't know what is actually owned by the entire entity. 

“In some instances, they will own bits of land that they didn't know existed whilst they're trying to plant trees in India, so they fail to see the potential in their own assets.”

With support from their steering board, Geovation and HM Land Registry, the Vana prototype phase was successfully funded by UKRI during the pandemic lockdown, and this confirmed that businesses are the best hope of enabling the UK to hit its tree-planting targets. 

Since then, Project Vana has received bespoke support from Innovate UK EDGE, delivered by Business West in the South West, to prepare them to help them overcome barriers to growth and achieve scale. The company has also received Innovate UK project funding, enabling them to improve their current infrastructure and bring organisations together to devise tree-growing and net-zero opportunities.

Jaya continued:

“The beauty about being involved with the Bristol Chamber of Commerce which forms part of Business West, is the link to great organisations like Innovate UK.  

“We're so small, just five people, so we would never have been able to take advantage of the opportunities without that support and those connections. It really has made a difference being part of that family.”