Abstract
The study analyses a survey of 353 businesses operating in the East Midlands and reveals trends of green growth strategy adoption, demand for green skills development, uptake of pro-environmental business support and attitudes to green growth policy. The findings confirm major differences between top green growth strategy adoption firms, i.e. green growth champions, when compared with other businesses. Such differences are evident in the following areas: sales generated from green goods and services; engagement with nature-based solutions; investment in decarbonisation; green growth and business strategy alignment; collaboration; and uptake of business support. The study reports characteristics of green growth champions and argues multidimensional and integrated perspective on green growth strategy at a firm level. Policy makers and business support providers are urged to develop effective green growth policy mixes which must go beyond the traditional foci on energy and resource efficiencies. Such policy interventions must equip businesses with skills and competences to compete in increasingly disruptive green market niches, bridge knowledge and information gaps, offer opportunities for collaborations, ensure ease of access to nature-based solutions, and reward and showcase green growth champions to channel capacity building for sustainable regional development.