The Otago Polytechnic will receive $28,250 to develop a course aimed at helping green-minded businesses grow into more environmentally sustainable ventures.
The funding came from the 2009-10 Sustainable Management Fund, which supported community groups, iwi, businesses and local government to undertake projects that made a positive difference to the way communities cared for their environments, Ministry for the Environment operations director Martyn Pinckard said.
The polytechnic's project aims to co-ordinate existing local resources and develop a course which is freely available to students, graduates and members of the public who wish to learn how to plan for business that is ecologically, economically and socially sustainable.
It was one of two projects which will receive funding for 12 months.
Wanaka's Te Kakano Aotearoa Trust will also receive $13,000 from the ministry for its Waterfall Creek revegetation project.
The trust will restore, protect and enhance the indigenous flora and fauna along the Waterfall Creek outlet.
It will replant the area with indigenous species and set up education and work days with the Te Kakano nursery, local community and visitors to the area.
Thirty-one projects across New Zealand will receive grants from the 2009-10 fund.