The Verdancy Group

Funding from West Lothian Council's Economic Development service has allowed East Calder-based business, The Verdancy Group, to expand their service offering and scale up operations.

Established in 2015 by Steven Kiakowski and Colin Grieve, The Verdancy Group are passionate about empowering people of all ages to make informed and sustainable choices. They do this by providing sustainability training and environmental guidance to organisations, educators, and communities.

The business has experienced impressive growth over recent years. To support this, they have dedicated their available resources towards nurturing their most valuable assets: their people, products and infrastructure. However, with further ambitious growth goals in place and high customer demand for new training delivery methods, additional support was essential.

To help The Verdancy Group achieve their growth goals, the Council provided funding through the Digital Development Grant. The Digital Development Grant is part funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and is aimed at enhancing the digital capabilities of Scottish businesses. West Lothian Council’s Economic Development service administer the funding locally.

With this funding, The Verdancy Group were able to significantly increase course delivery numbers via their e-learning programme. Previously, they were only able to offer courses either in person or via virtual classroom. However, the funding received allowed them to meet demand from customers from the public, private and third sectors, and offer the course via an e-learning, self-paced delivery method.

In addition to the Digital Development Grant, they also received support from the Graduate Recruitment Fund, which provides funding towards the salary of a recent graduate in one of the following roles: Green Champion, Cyber Security Champion, or STEM Champion. This helped them add a new member to their team to support the additional demand.

Director of The Verdancy Group, Steven Kiakowski said, ‘’Receiving funding support from Business Gateway's Digital Development Grant has empowered us to unlock new opportunities and accelerate our digital transformation journey, propelling our business towards sustainable growth and success. With this support, we're equipped to harness the full potential of digital innovation, driving efficiency, expanding our reach, and ultimately, achieving our goals with greater impact."

Further information on the Digital Development Grant is available here.

To register interest and find out more please email - invest@westlothian.gov.uk