£100,000 on offer to help Stockport businesses improve energy efficiency

Small businesses in Stockport are being invited to apply to a new grant scheme for funding to support them to take steps to improve their energy efficiency and reduce bills.

Green Economy have been commissioned by Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to deliver business support programmes pertaining to the city-region’s net-zero ambitions funding by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF).

The Energy Efficiency Grant scheme will allow SMEs to access grant funding of up to £5000 to cover up to 50% of the cost to deliver projects to help reduce energy usage. Eligible projects include heating equipment upgrades, replacement motors, process efficiency investments, and lighting efficiency. To qualify for the grant, projects must specify the scale of CO2e savings expected from the project.

Alasdair Dalzel-Job, Technical Lead at Green Economy, said:

“We have seen time and again that the key barrier to net zero for businesses is accessing cashflow and capital investment to take those ‘nice to do projects’ to the top of their to do list. This grant presents a real opportunity for businesses in Stockport to prioritise energy efficiency improvements in 2024.

“We have delivered a number of grants for businesses over the years, awarding over £1 million since 2018, which has helped businesses to save £2.3 million in overheads, with annual carbon savings of 5,773.63 carbon tonnes.”

Among the businesses benefiting from support from Green Economy is Stockport and Essex based Laserline Dies, a manufacturer of steel tooling for packaging firms. Following an on-site audit, the business was successful in applying for a grant to replace existing lighting with more efficient LEDs. Changes led the business to save 23512kWh, 5.43 tonnes of CO2_E and around £15,000 annually on energy bills.

Krzysztof Szlezyngier, Technical Manager at Laserline Dies, said:

“Like every successful business we are constantly looking at improving our efficiencies, reducing our environmental impact and energy costs. There are a lot of ways these targets can be achieved, but very often the process, return on investments or administration can be long and painful. We were looking for ways to achieve this in the most convenient and least disruptive way.

“The Green Economy team visited our premises and installed voltage electricity loggers to monitor our usage for a few weeks. This data was vital in helping us to understand how we were using electricity, identifying some quick wins with our weekend and out of hours usage and helping us to understand where we could invest to make the most impactful improvements.”