Green Business Grants

Reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money on energy bills. Applications are expected to open in June 2023.

Funding available

Cut carbon, cut costs

A Green Business Grant is designed to help SMEs purchase and install new products and equipment that reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, cut your utility costs and improve your energy efficiency.

Applications must help the business to achieve a measurable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions when compared to your current baseline emissions.

Grant is available first come, first served. A total of £2million will be made available up to March 2025. Applications are assessed on their own merit against set criteria and awards are made on a rolling basis throughout the grant window.

Funding

How much will I get?

You can apply for a grant of between £1,000 and £15,000 towards eligible capital costs of purchase and installation. The amount of match funding you will need to provide is currently being decided from an evidence-based review and may vary depending on the items you are looking to buy. In previous grant rounds most projects have required between 50% and 60% match funding.

This is a grant and does not need to be repaid. However, Green Business Grants are paid on defrayal, this means if you are successful in securing a grant, you must purchase and complete your project before claiming the funding you have been awarded. You should aim to do this within a 6 month claim window, although this can be extended in exceptional circumstances.

Am I eligible?

You must:

Have a trading address in the Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol or South Gloucestershire local authority areas.
Be able to provide suitable match funding for your project (required match is currently under review)
Be a limited company, limited liability partnership, co-operative
Be a small or medium sized enterprise (SME), this means you must not employ more than 249 people
Have a turnover of at least £85,000 and either be VAT registered or VAT exempt

What can I use the Green Business Grant for?

You can use a Green Business Grant to purchase and/or install materials, products and equipment that will result in a measurable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in your business.

Previous applicants have used a grant for:

LED lighting and better lighting controls
solar photovoltaic panels
roof, wall, pipe and technical component insulation
solar film to reduce the need for air conditioning in the summer
more efficient heating and better controls
air compressors and variable speed drives to improve the efficiency of manufacturing and processing equipment.

Your application must be supported by independent advice and verification that it is a worthwhile action to take, with estimated savings calculated and alternative options identified where possible. Our Carbon Surveys provide this advice free of charge, but you can also use a third-party consultant or assessor.

We will assess your application on its own merit against our criteria for value-for-money, deliverability and financial viability. More information on eligible projects, supporting evidence and assessment criteria will be available in our Grant Guidance once released.

Image credit: Timur Repin, Unsplash

Contact us

You can contact us by email at lowcarbonbusiness@westofengland-ca.gov.uk with your query and contact details. Please include your business name, the address of your premises within the West of England Combined Authority region and telephone and email contact details.

You can also call the Low Carbon Business Support team on 0117 332 1520 between 9.30am and 4.30pm Monday to Friday. Our phone lines can be busy so please leave a message and we will try and get back to you as soon as we can. Please ensure you leave a name, phone number, email address and a summary of your enquiry.