Over the past four years, the DE-Carbonise project has given almost £1.5m in grants to help businesses reduce their energy and resource use and carbon emissions. The measures funded by the grants to date save a minimum of 180,000 tonnes of carbon emissions and £620,000 per year in business costs.

The project provides free advice and grants of between £1,000 and £20,000 to enable small and medium sized businesses to implement carbon saving measures within their premises and business activities. This includes improvements to heating, lighting, insulation, equipment, materials, waste and water management, solar panels, electric vehicles and charge points.

There is still £400,000 of grant money left to award to eligible Derby businesses by the middle of next year. Grants are given on a first-come, first-served basis so any businesses interested in DE-Carbonise support should get in touch as soon as possible via the project webpages. The grant covers up to 40% of the total cost of works (excluding VAT), depending on the carbon saving calculated by the project team.

The team has also carried out 580 carbon reduction audits so far, and is currently working with another 90 businesses in the region, providing free, no-obligation advice on how best to reduce their carbon emissions.

Councillor Matthew Holmes, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Decarbonisation & Strategic Planning & Transport said:

The DE-Carbonise project is doing great work helping local businesses make significant improvements to their carbon footprint.

There is support on offer from business reviews and technical support and on Clean Air Day especially, I’d urge all the SME’s in the city to think about getting in touch and seeing what they can do.

The project is a partnership between the University of Derby, Derby City Council and Derbyshire County Council and is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.

Pictured: SCITEK Consultants swapped their polluting diesel forklift truck for an electric one, improving air quality in their warehouse.