Hampshire's green economy: the figures and the networks

"Green business" can mean almost anything, from a solar installer to an accountant who has switched to a renewable tariff. That makes it easy to write about in adjectives and hard to pin down in numbers. This piece sticks to what can be checked: the official figures for the low-carbon economy, what small firms say they are actually doing, the commitments Hampshire's councils have made, and the groups in the county where people working on it meet.

The national picture, in numbers

There is no official count of green businesses for Hampshire alone. The figures that exist are for the UK and its four nations, and they are worth knowing.

• Turnover. The ONS's low carbon and renewable energy economy survey, published on 25 February 2026, estimated UK turnover in these activities at £77.0 billion in 2024, "an increase of £8.1 billion (11.8%) since 2023".
• Businesses. The same release says the number of UK businesses reporting low-carbon activity rose by almost a quarter (24.9%), from 94,500 in 2023 to 118,000 in 2024.
• Jobs. Employment in those activities was 304,000 full-time equivalents in 2024, "down by 13,000 FTEs (4.1%) since 2023". England accounted for 247,500 of them.
• Green jobs more widely. A separate ONS measure, its experimental estimates of green jobs published on 24 March 2026, counted 652,100 full-time equivalents in UK green jobs in 2024, up 27.8% on 2015, though it also notes a fall of 10,800 between 2023 and 2024.

So the honest summary is: more businesses doing some low-carbon work, more money flowing through it, and a recent dip in the jobs count.

What small firms are actually doing

The most useful recent research on small businesses is the British Business Bank's SMEs and Net Zero report 2025, published on 21 October 2025. It draws on the UK Net Zero Business Census, which the British Chambers of Commerce and Planet Mark ran in August 2025 with 2,018 businesses, 1,783 of them smaller firms. Its main findings:

• Smaller businesses account for around 37% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions, and the 14% of them in carbon-intensive sectors produce around 84% of that.
• Net zero is "a low priority for most smaller businesses over the next 12 months".
• Even so, 77% of smaller businesses have already taken at least one action.
• 63% see at least one benefit to their business in making progress, though the report says barriers are seen even more widely than benefits.

That gap between low priority and some action is where a local network can help. Talking to someone who has already done the energy audit, answered a customer's carbon questionnaire or looked into a grant is often an easier first step than starting from scratch.

Hampshire's own commitments

Hampshire County Council declared a climate emergency in June 2019. It set two targets, which it says apply to Hampshire as a whole as well as to the council: becoming carbon neutral by 2050, and preparing to be resilient to the impact of a 2°C rise in temperature.

Two strands of the county's economy show what that means for business:

• Aviation. The council's aerospace page describes an emerging "Jet Zero" cluster of "over 150 businesses", most with one to ten employees, which have attracted "over £24million in Innovate UK funding" for projects on sustainable fuels, materials, airport operations and new aircraft.
• Industry around Southampton Water. The Solent Cluster is a partnership of industries around Fawley working on carbon capture and hydrogen. A January 2026 factsheet from the Carbon Capture and Storage Association names ExxonMobil, SGN, SSE, RWE, Hynamics and Marchwood Power as its industry partners and says it "could create 3,200 high-quality jobs". Those are projections for a project still in development, not jobs today.

The skills gap is the practical story

For most small firms the green economy shows up as a skills question: who can fit the heat pump, model the emissions or retrofit the boat. Hampshire Chamber of Commerce's Local Skills Improvement Plan 2026 to 2029, launched on 10 July 2026, lists green skills alongside digital capability and leadership among the shortages behind the area's skills gaps.

Its maritime sector report of March 2026 is more specific. In an indicative employer survey of 23 responses, around 57% reported "some or significant skills needs linked to net zero goals". It also says electrotechnical capability is "foundational to the UK's entire net zero infrastructure", from EV charging to heat pumps, and, citing ECA data, that the ratio of electricians to population in Hampshire and the Solent is already below the England average.

Where sustainability-minded businesses meet

The listings on hampshire.events show a handful of regular formats, each with a different feel:

• Pub meetups. People Planet Pint runs informal evening meetups for people and businesses interested in sustainability, as part of a national network. It has meetups listed in Netley, Brockenhurst and Southampton. See People Planet Pint's page.
• Practical workshops. Professional bodies and councils run sessions on the specifics. CIOB Wessex and Channel Islands, with IOSH, has an evening on carbon reporting for the built environment, and Southampton City Council's business support team runs an online lunch-and-learn on running a greener small business.
• Adaptation as well as emissions. Shaping Portsmouth's Climate Ready 2026 morning looks at how businesses prepare for heat, water and infrastructure risks, which is the second of the county council's two targets.
• Organisers to follow. Climate Tech Impact South, The Southern Sustainability Partnership and the New Forest National Park Authority all have organiser pages on hampshire.events, with their next dates when they have one listed.

What this means if you're going to events

A sustainability meetup is more useful if you arrive with something concrete. A few suggestions:

• Know your starting point. If you have measured your footprint, bring the headline figure; if you have not, say so. Plenty of people in the room will be at the same stage.
• Bring the question your customers ask. If a customer has sent you a carbon questionnaire, bring it. The carbon reporting session listed below is built around turning data requests into credible disclosure.
• Ask for names, not opinions. The most useful thing you can leave with is a trusted installer, assessor or adviser that someone else has used.
• Mix formats. A pub meetup is good for finding people; a workshop is better for detail.

The listings below are as listed on hampshire.events; check details with each organiser before you go. For more, see what's on in Southampton, Portsmouth and Brockenhurst, the county's talks, or everything on this week.

Correction: an earlier version of this article described a green movement "gathering pace". The figures are more mixed, so the wording has been changed.