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[June 2002]
Ceramic Industry to Make Considerable Savings with New Free Advice Initiative
'Action Energy' was launched on 24 June 2002, this being a British Government initiative introduced by the Carbon Trust to help businesses within the ceramic industry to cut their energy costs through the provision of free professional advice and assistance. As part of the launch, a new £10 million Energy Loans Initiative is also being introduced across England and Wales, with the support of Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.Through Action Energy, organisations from multinationals to small businesses (including not-for-profit and public organisations) will now be able to receive free and impartial advice on how to save money by reducing energy use. As well as the clear commercial advantages, companies can also maintain their corporate social responsibility.
Small and medium-sized companies in England and Wales that require capital investment to become more energy efficient can also benefit from the new £10 million of interest-free Energy Loans. These are available in loans of between £5,000 and £50,000, repayable over four years. The scheme builds on the success of similar schemes which already operate in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Margaret Beckett commented: "Smaller businesses are responsible for a significant amount of carbon emissions in the business sector. So cutting their energy use is central to meeting our carbon abatement targets and moving towards a low carbon economy.
"But SMEs can find it hard to save energy, even though considerable savings are realistically achievable. A key barrier is that that they may not have easy access to the capital they need to make the necessary investment.
"This new Carbon Trust programme (Energy Loans) addresses this head on by offering up-front interest free loans for practical and realistic energy efficiency measures, recycling the Climate Change Levy straight back to small levy-payers to help them save both energy and money."
Experience has reportedly shown that energy bills can often be reduced by up to 20% using a variety of energy efficient techniques, many of which involve little or no expenditure. Action Energy has been established to help all organisations to achieve this. The services offered include a free helpline providing expert advice, online information, publications providing basic to technical information and free energy surveys to identify opportunities for energy savings.
www.actionenergy.org.uk
ENDS