Scaling Up Environmental Upgrade Agreements Across Australia
- $725k Funded by ARENA
- $1.86m Total project cost
Summary
The Scaling up Environmental Upgrade Agreements Across Australia project will see the Better Building Finance program expand into NSW and SA to assist councils and businesses become more sustainable.
Need
The Scaling up Environmental Upgrade Agreements Across Australia project is led by the Sustainable Melbourne Fund. The project acknowledges that one of the great challenges businesses face in becoming more sustainable is access to capital. Paying upfront is often not feasible, and traditional finance terms may not work.
Environmental upgrade finance (also known as building upgrade finance) solves this problem. By engaging local councils as the third party in the agreement, businesses can access affordable terms, including repayment terms of up to 20 years. This unique finance arrangement can help make these projects affordable for businesses, and in many cases they can be cash flow positive, where the savings from the upgrade exceed loan repayments.
Learn more
Report: Building Upgrade Finance Program Guide for Councils
This program guide was developed by Better Building Finance to grow the Environmental/Building Upgrade Finance market in Australia, allowing more businesses to access this finance, unlock savings and become more sustainable.
Media Release: Local Councils and Businesses to Benefit from Renewable Energy Funding Initiative
Councils in New South Wales and South Australia will soon be able to help small businesses make their buildings more sustainable at a lower cost, after an innovative funding initiative that has seen success in Victoria looks to expand to other states.
Action
The Better Building Finance program was established to work with councils to adopt and administer the environmental upgrade finance program, opening up the market for more sustainable buildings.
In Victoria, it grew from one council (City of Melbourne) to working with 34 councils and administering their environmental upgrades finance programs.In 2018, Better Building Finance worked with these council partners to facilitate 26 environmental upgrade projects at an investment of $10.5 million, generating 2.4 MW of solar power, which will lead to the abatement of 178k tonnes of emissions over the life of the projects.
Outcome
This project will help develop Better Building Finance operations into an online platform to make the finance process simpler to implement and expand, with a target to deploy $50 million into renewable energy and building upgrade investments. This project will aim to sign up an initial 23 councils across NSW and SA to the Better Building Finance platform.
Read more
ARENAWIRE Blogs
Better buildings on the way with expanded renewable finance program
Businesses across South Australia and New South Wales will soon have access to a new low-cost finance scheme to install renewables and improve their energy efficiency.
