A national energy advice charity has announced its partnership with investors and funders in order to help other local charities tackle rising energy bills and climate change.
The Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) has partnered with funders including Social Investment Business (SIB), a key UK social investor, to offer a free, specialist support for other charities to plan and finance the most effective actions to improve their energy resilience and lower energy bills.
The collaboration will bring CSE together with social investors to provide wrap-around support as part of the £15m Energy Resilience Fund, a package launched at the end of last year, which includes free energy audits, and blended grant and loan finance for charities, community organisations and social enterprises to invest in energy improvements, retrofits and electric vehicles.
The new service announced yesterday expands the current service by also connecting organisations with specialist advice from CSE.
SIB published research earlier this year revealing that some charities are being compelled to spend as much as 50% of their entire budgets in order to cover utility bills, limiting their ability to deliver charitable aims.
The Energy Resilience Fund is managed by SIB, in partnership with the likes of Big Issue Invest, Charity Bank, Co-operative and Community Finance and The Ubele Initiative, with funding from Better Society Capital, Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, and Social Investment Business Foundation.
Partnership comes at ‘critical time’
Reacting to the partnership, Robin Bell, CSE’s retrofit project officer, said: “This collaboration comes at a critical time, as people, charities and community organisations seek to tackle the climate emergency while struggling with the rising energy costs.
“There is huge potential for community buildings to reduce their emissions, cut their running costs, and become safer, healthier community spaces.
“Working with SIB on this initiative brings together our expertise in community buildings and energy efficiency to ensure as many organisations as possible can access the right support and funding to put their net-zero plans into action.”
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