The British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) is urging small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to take advantage of the Carbon Trust's interest free, unsecured loans of up to £500,000 (approximately $785,000) for energy-saving upgrades.
By replacing old inefficient equipment, companies can significantly cut their costs, and in many cases, improve their productivity by between 20 to 30 percent, according to BCC.
Business loans are available from £3,000 to £500,000 (approximately $4,700 to $785,000) for businesses to invest in energy-savings projects and equipment upgrades.
Qualified projects fall into two groups: building technologies such as upgrades for air conditioning, boilers and heating controls, insulation, heat recovery, lighting, as well as the installation of solar thermal systems, and industrial process technologies including retrofits for compressed air fittings, motors, materials handling equipment, power factor correction, process heating, refrigeration and variable speed drives.
BCC says the loans can be repaid over a period of up to four years and since the program is designed for the energy savings to cover repayments, the loans will pay for themselves.
