Affordable and Clean Energy: smaller bills, a business built to last

The biggest changes often start with the smallest ones - a bulb, a valve, a switch labelled so your team knows what to turn off. Across the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley, businesses are proving it adds up.

Local businesses show what clean energy looks like in practice - from a single bulb to a roof full of solar. 

How local businesses are cutting energy bills and carbon

Most businesses don't start with a grand plan, they start with the heating bill, a radiator on in an empty room, or a light nobody switched off. Small fixes, then bigger ones once the savings proved the point.

It matters beyond the balance sheet, too. Visitors increasingly ask how a place is run, and a business that can show its energy story - panels on the roof, a charger in the car park, a team that knows why it matters - earns a kind of trust that advertising can't buy.

What is UN Sustainable Development Goal 7, Affordable and Clean Energy?

Businesses choosing energy that costs less, cuts carbon and earns the trust of the people they serve. The United Nations calls that Sustainable Development Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy. You don't need to know the framework to be part of it. Most of the businesses in this film were living it before they could name it.

First steps, from smallest to biggest

• Start where you are: swap to LED bulbs, fit thermostatic radiator valves, and ask your supplier about a renewable tariff
• Know your numbers: ask the Growth Hub or your district council whether a free carbon audit is available to you
• Go bigger: look at solar, heat pumps or an EV charger for guests
• Do it together: if your roof is larger than 80m², talk to Big Solar Co-op about joining a group installation

Choose a goal

Find your first step. And do it together - you're in good company.

• Choose your goal
• Tell us your first step: Marketing@visitdeanwye.co.uk

Choose another goal

The six goals Visit Dean Wye partners champion. Each one has its own three-minute film and a list of first steps.

• No Poverty
• Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Responsible Consumption and Production
• Life Below Water
• Life on Land
• Back to the Sustainable Tourism hub