Small and medium sized business n Bolton are invited to apply for a new Energy Efficiency Grant to to help them to become environmentally friendly.

The grant of up to £5,000 is on offer from Green Economy, which has been commissioned by Greater Manchester Combined Authority to deliver business support programmes funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund Levelling Up project, to support the local ambition to be a net zero city-region by 2038.

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 Bolton 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.”

The Energy Efficiency grant is available to small and medium enterprises based in Bolton, providing 50 per cent of the cost to deliver projects worth up to £5,000.

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.

New heating and lighting helps Bolton firm to save £18K plus each year

BOC Car Centre, based in Bolton, manages and leases a number of car showroom forecourts to independent car sales firms across the North West.

The firm received support from the Sustainability and Net Zero team to identify opportunities to increase efficiency, cut costs and reduce carbon emissions.

Following an onsite review their advisor recommended upgrading the existing heating and lighting systems.

The business was awarded a grant to replace the existing gas warm air blower with electric Infra-Red heaters and the fluorescent lighting with LED light fittings, reducing the businesses gas and electricity consumption equating to 65.2 CO2e tonnes and creating cost savings of £18,183 each year.

Jawed Patel, Manager of BOC Car Centre, said: “Receiving this grant was integral to delivering our energy saving project as we didn’t have the necessary capital due to other business critical expenses taking priority.

“The grant bridged the gap in our finances and brought the project to the forefront of our attention. It was great to work with a local installer to deliver the project for us.”