The Heritage Lottery Fund will require funded projects to measure the carbon impact of their work as part of measures introduced in the funder's new strategic framework, released this morning.

Dame Jenny Abramsky (pictured), chair of HLF, said that the carbon footprint measurement requirement will apply from today to all grants worth more than £2m. The tools for measurement will be provided by Best Foot Forward, and the initiative is designed to determine whether heritage projects have a positive or negative effect on the environment.

Looking at increased budgets of £375m a year, which Dame Jenny said she expects to remain steady for the five years the framework covers until 2018, the HLF is both increasing its investments in existing funds as well as supporting new areas. The HLF chair however assured the sector that the majority of  HLF grants will be made in open funding. 

In the spirit of encouraging sustainability for the heritage sector, HLF has allocated £5m to work with the Arts Council to develop fundraising skills and encourage philanthropy by developing endowments.

Dame Jenny also announced the Heritage Enterprise scheme, which will be launched next year and is to see the HLF fund partnerships, including between private and social enterprise, which develop economically sustainable solutions for the most at-risk and challenged heritage sites.

Minister for tourism and heritage Jon Penrose applauded the scheme. “This is an important opportunity for all of us here today,” he told the audience attending the launch at the British Museum this morning. “This is going to set the scene.”

The HLF is reaching out to the private sector again by increasing the maximum size of grant for heritage which is in private ownership tenfold, from £10,000 to £100,000. But Dame Jenny said the HLF would expect that these larger grants to private owners result in “a step-change in public access” to the sites.

In launching a new simple grant programme for grants of between £3,000 and £10,000 as part of the framework, Dame Jenny said: “We are determined to go on making things easier and encouraging people to get involved in heritage.”

Other measures in the framework included the commitment that, from today, the organisation will also fund digital-only projects, as well as strengthened commitments to fund places of worship and encouraging partnerships in collections and acquisition.