The Low Carbon Community and Culture Project provides expert support and funding for community or cultural organisations wanting to spend less on energy and produce less carbon emissions.
The project is open for enquiries. We will accept organisations onto the scheme on a first come, first served basis until there is no more funding or support available.
Through this project, you could:
- reduce your energy costs
- make your organisation more sustainable and environmentally friendly
- possibly protect and create jobs by investing savings back into your organisation
This project is part-funded through the GOV.UK: Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF).
What support could you get
One-to-one support
Our advisors will guide you through every stage of the process. They will:
- help you understand your energy usage and identify where you could save energy
- refer you for an energy survey
- support you to understand the results of the survey and how you could fund improvements, including whether you could apply for a grant through the project
- help you find other sources of support to help you reduce your energy costs and carbon footprint
Energy survey
You’ll get a free energy survey of your premises to show you how much energy you use now and how you could save energy.
The report will identify energy saving improvements the organisation could invest in. It will also give you details on how much carbon each could save, how much it would cost, and how much money it could save you, so you can decide what’s the right path to take.
Energy Efficiency Grants
The project includes a grant scheme through which you may be able to apply for funding to help pay for your energy-saving changes.
Eligibility
To be eligible to take part in the scheme, you must:
- be an organisation, or group of organisations, delivering community or cultural activity from premises in Sheffield (this includes charities, community groups and not-for-profit social enterprises)
- deliver services or activities out of buildings used mainly for community or cultural purposes
- be able to provide 12 months’ energy bills (or however many months you’ve been in your premises, if less than 12 months)
- if you are a business, you must have had less than £315,000 Minimal Financial Assistance subsidy over the last 3 years (ask us about this if you’re not sure)
- if you are a tenant, you must have the approval of your landlord to make changes to the building
- the premises you operate from must be public facing, such as being accessible by the community
If you are a group of organisations, you must be able to identify one lead organisation who will hold the grant and be accountable for it. You must also be able to explain how and why the organisations are working together.
About the grants
As part of the project, organisations will have the chance to apply for funding to help pay for eligible energy-saving changes identified in their survey.
For projects costing up to £20,000
- you can apply for a grant to cover up to 100% of the project cost
- you can apply for up to £15,000
For projects costing more than £20,000
- you can apply for a grant to cover up to 75% of the project cost
- you can apply for between £15,000 and £25,000
If there is enough funding available, we may be able to explore grants of more than £25,000 in exceptional cases.
If your grant covers less than 100% of your project cost, your organisation will need to be able to cover the remaining cost in other ways.
To qualify for a grant through the project
- the energy-saving change you want funding for must be identified in your Energy Survey
- you must commit to carrying out two surveys to measure users’ thoughts and experiences: one before you make the change and one afterwards to measure its impact
- the investment must be set to complete by December 2024
- the amount you can apply for will also be limited by how much carbon your changes are set to save over the lifetime of the investment – this will be made clear in your Energy Survey and the Advisor will work it through with you
- we can only support capital projects; we can’t fund working capital or operational costs
- projects costing more than £20,000 must have a Return on Investment of more than 1 year
To find out more including whether you qualify for support, please email sccaproject@sheffield.gov.uk
The project is now open for enquiries.
The Low Carbon Community and Culture Project has received £2,198,900 from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
