Energy Innovation Agency marks three years of driving sustainability among Greater Manchester businesses

Greater Manchester’s Energy Innovation Agency is celebrating three years of activities that have supported businesses across the city-region to cut their carbon emissions.

The Energy Innovation Agency is a unique partnership between the public, private and academic sectors in Greater Manchester, formed in 2021. The agency is tasked with accelerating carbon emission reductions and transitioning the city-region to a carbon-neutral economy by 2038.

To date, the Agency has helped secure more than £6 million of innovation funding, supporting more than 200 innovators to develop solutions that reduce energy costs and cut carbon for 100 businesses in the region across diverse sectors, forging vital industry partnerships, creating jobs, attracting investment and delivering significant carbon reductions. Other key highlights have included:

• Facilitating the rollout of an energy-saving boiler additive across up to 1.8M homes with Procure Plus, with the potential to save 4,860,000 tonnes of Co2 and up to 15% energy for tenants on energy costs over a 10-year product lifecycle.
• Collaborating with Rubix Facilities Management, the UK’s largest facilities management provider, to introduce carbon and cost saving innovative solutions, across commercial and logistics estates within their strategic customer base across GM and beyond.
• Supporting 23 SMEs as part of the University of Salford’s Future Homes project with funding and testing opportunities in Energy House 2.0 and enabling four businesses to bring new products to market over the past 12 months.

David Schiele, Director of the Energy Innovation Agency, said:

“The Agency was created as a collaborative vehicle to accelerate the deployment of effective energy solutions, and the scale and pace of decarbonisation, to support a low-carbon energy transition. By matching innovations against industry challenges, we are enabling innovation to prosper, supporting a just-transition with sustainable growth, and helping meet net-zero targets, whilst bringing down the cost of energy.

“Significant challenges like these require collaboration and innovation which is why the Agency is the perfect vehicle to support these efforts. We are committed to continuing our work, driving forward the transition to a carbon-neutral Greater Manchester and beyond.”

Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said:

“The Energy Innovation Agency is playing a crucial role in helping Greater Manchester lead the way on the journey to net zero. By fast-tracking the deployment of cutting-edge green technologies, it’s supporting local businesses to cut carbon, lower energy costs, and grow sustainably.

“This work directly supports our ambitious environmental goals, while also creating jobs, attracting investment, and making Greater Manchester a hub for clean energy innovation. It’s exactly the kind of collaboration and forward thinking we need to build a fairer, greener future.”

As it looks to the future, the Energy Innovation Agency is committed to strengthening Greater Manchester’s position as a leader in clean energy and supporting its carbon neutral ambitions, and to expanding activities to other city-regions across the UK, and even internationally.