The Carbon Trust will launch a new programme – The Big Business Refit – in order to help thousands of small and medium sized businesses drive down their energy costs, a statement reveals.
The Big Business Refit will offer SMEs expert advice and financial support to cut energy costs by scrapping old inefficient equipment and replacing it with new energy efficient models.
With a total of £100m in loans available, the Big Business Refit is expected to help up to 3,000 UK SMEs save a total of £40m.
Due to a recession-driven surge in demand for the Carbon Trust’s interest-free business loans, in the first six months of 2009, hundreds of SMEs have been given support to equip their businesses with the latest energy-saving technology.
According to Carbon Trust, as result, SMEs are saving an average of £14,000 each on their annual energy bills – a total of almost £6m a year.
In the statement, Tom Delay, Carbon Trust’s chief executive, was reported as saying: “Business owners are realising that for every month they ‘make do and mend’ with old inefficient equipment, they are wasting more cash on unnecessarily high energy bills.
“With credit all but dried up elsewhere, the Big Business Refit breaks the deadlock by helping SMEs to buy the equipment that will both slash their costs and often transform their businesses”.
FinSMEs
31/08/2009