Cash available to help Sheffield businesses become greener
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A new £1.3m low carbon business support project has been launched by Sheffield City Council, but is open to all businesses in the region that would like to become involved.
Council officer Ben Morley told a recent meeting of the Executive: "This fundamentally reflects the fairly obvious need to deal with climate change and will directly address some of those issues by targeting the business community and improving their climate performance.
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Hide Ad"It's a relatively low value project in the scheme of things and what we have to achieve as a city, let alone globally, but this is seen as a first step.
"It's more of an educational programme for businesses. A key part is the appointment of specialist support consultants who will be able to go and meet businesses.
"This is almost a no-brainer scheme. It's ticking two boxes in terms of economic growth and recovery, but equally as important, is ticking the sustainability box as well. And as far as we're concerned, we think it's a really good project to just get on with."
The council has initially identified around 260 businesses but hopes to interact with more as the project progresses.
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Hide AdMr Morley added: "The businesses will be provided with a free energy audit which will identify relatively straightforward interventions they can take to improve their environmental credentials and reducing their energy needs
"It may be through energy production, energy saving measures, or looking at some of their waste and water management so a fairly broad range of interventions will be identified by the audit.
"Businesses who receive an audit can apply for a grant of up to 50 per cent towards the costs of providing the interventions. There's not huge grants, we're talking up to £20,000, but those measures do make a difference.
"We anticipate the majority will be simple like putting LED lights in, reducing draught or looking at energy performance of equipment so it's relatively small scale interventions, which importantly pay back quite quickly."