Free Carbon Surveys & Green Grant Funding for West of England Cricket Clubs

Guest blog from Seb Hockridge of the West of England Combined Authority

The West of England Combined Authority are supporting sports organisations within the West of England and would like to introduce cricket clubs to our free Carbon Surveys and Green Business Grant programmes. We have awarded grant funding of over £2.7 million to help SMEs, charities and community sports organisations to reduce their energy usage and bills within the West of England. Our grant can help to cover the cost of solar panels, LED floodlights, heat pumps and many other measures which can help to reduce energy usage and carbon emissions.

If you are registered as a community sports organisation, SME or charity and are based within South Gloucestershire, Bristol or Bath & North East Somerset then you are likely eligible. Here is an overview of the support we can offer:

Carbon Survey:

WECA are offering a free Carbon Survey to help find ways to reduce your carbon emissions, cut your utility costs and improve your energy efficiency. We will look at your energy bills, visit your premises and assess your building and operations. We can help you find quick wins that you could action straight away for little or no cost, as well as those that may need more investment. We will send a report outlining the recommendations within 3 weeks of the survey, which will be supported by energy, cost and carbon savings which can help to direct your decision making.

If you are interested, please fill out and return this form by email. After this, one of the surveyors will be in contact.

Green Business Grant:

Once you’ve had a Carbon Survey from us or another organisation, you may be eligible to apply for our Green Business Grant, designed to help organisations like yours purchase and install new products and equipment that reduce carbon emissions, cut utility costs and improve energy efficiency. You can apply for a grant of between £200 and £15,000 to cover between 30% and 60% of eligible capital costs of purchase and installation. The ECB County Grants Fund can be used in addition to the Green Business Grant, and can help to match fund your project.

Many clubs are saving on their energy bills by installing solar panels

These grants are first come, first served and open for a limited amount of time, so we do encourage you to let us know if you would be interested in applying.

The first step would be to send over 12 months of energy bills (electricity, gas, LPG) and then we can arrange a survey for a date and time which suits you. If you do not have 12 months of bills, please send over what you have and we can use this to estimate your annual usage.