Sustainable Melbourne Fund has released a short animated video and a guide on applying for environmental upgrade finance aimed at informing building owners about the innovative new funding solution for unlocking energy and water savings.


The environmental upgrade finance mechanism is part of the City of Melbourne’s 1200 Buildings program. Sustainable Melbourne Fund Chief Executive Scott Bocskay said the resources would equip building owners with a better understanding of environmental upgrade agreements, with full information about how
the mechanism works and what makes a retrofit project eligible for funding.


“The reaction from the commercial building sector indicates that there is a strong level of interest in the details of environmental upgrade finance. These materials provide building owners with the information they need about financing a retrofit through this mechanism,” Mr Bocskay said.


“The guide has an accompanying instructions sheet that provides a practical checklist for building owners applying for environmental upgrade finance.”


Mr Bocskay said that improvements such as lighting upgrades, improvements to building fabric through glazing and shading, and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems were eligible for funding. He said that other improvements that yielded energy or water savings or produced energy were also eligible.


“Environmental upgrade finance allows the market to determine the way forward in terms of achieving energy and water savings or energy production to save building owners and tenants money. Reducing expenses is good business and essentially becomes revenue to your bottom line,” he said.


“Building owners, tenants, the retrofit market and financiers need to understand and grasp the opportunities that environmental upgrade finance provides and how it can help their business.”

 

A copy of the Environmental Upgrade Finance Application Guide can be obtained from Sustainable Melbourne Fund by calling 1300 432 044 or emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

The animated short video is available on the Sustainable Melbourne Fund website at www.sustainablemelbournefund.com.au/euf