Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has launched a £200m carbon reduction fund to help UK businesses reduce energy costs.
The new fund will finance a range of sustainable energy projects for businesses from retro-fitting buildings with more energy efficient heating and lighting to on-site wind power and ground source heat pumps, helping businesses become more energy efficient and supporting the renewable generation of electricity. The fund will help businesses with a turnover of over £25m and is will take advantage of the government’s Funding for Lending scheme, which will allow it to provide lower lending rates to businesses.
Chris Sullivan, ceo of RBS Corporate bank said: “Businesses of all shapes and sizes can make significant savings from being more efficient as energy costs continue to rise. We hope to offer businesses both an incentive and a solution to transforming their energy use and carbon footprint. We’ve seen huge benefits within our own business here at RBS from introducing energy efficiency measures and the sourcing of energy from renewable sources.“
RBS claims to be the biggest lender to UK renewable projects in 2011 and already provides a range of options to help businesses reduce energy costs, such as a renewable energy fund for SMEs and through Lombard, the bank’s asset finance arm.