As soon as anything commercial adopts a ‘Green’ label it may raise suspicion that something opportunistic is going on.
So, because I am publishing a blog on Green Commercial Finance at the start of the week when the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, starts in Glasgow, let me deal with that issue first:
My hope is that how topical the subject is this week may highlight the blog and gain a little more attention for the conclusion that I have drawn.
So like an activist I will shake up the order of things here and reach my conclusion for you at the outset: Green Commercial Finance is an opportunity to play your part, as a business, in the far larger collective effort that is required for us all to act on climate change together. As surely that is the only way that we will succeed.
I have heard many eminent scientists and experts detail the individual things that we can all do to help stop continued damage to the environment. And a common objection to taking these actions has been “but what difference can I make by doing that..”. But it feels like we are at a tipping point where millions of people are prepared to increase the actions they take, and action on that scale will have a positive impact.
The last generation has grown up in an age where doing the right thing for the environment has been cost prohibitive – from the cost of vegetarian alternatives in the supermarket, to the technology that you could use at home to reduce carbon fuel usage, like solar panels. While not fully there yet, the scale of demand for greener solutions to everything helps relatively quickly drive the cost of the choice down. Heat source boilers probably the next example of this?
And so we turn to Green Commercial Finance, and why you can and should look to access it.
First let’s cover the commercial issue – ‘what is it going to cost you?’ – at a time where even with the largest will in the world to play your part, it’s been a hard couple of years during the pandemic, and you are already seeing costs increasing from every angle.
The answer is nothing, and in fact the opposite. In any situation where your business is going to enter into the expenditure regardless, then Green Commercial Finance incentivises your expenditure to have a positive impact environmentally.
In a nutshell, your funding is discounted to incentivise you to do the right thing, and play your part.
Areas where incentives are available include, but are not limited to:
- Property development – Tools to help to enhance the energy performance of new build, converted or refurbished property
- Property investment – Enhanced rates applied to higher rated properties on energy performance, which are better for your tenants as well as the environment
- Vehicles and transport – Funding for investment in low carbon and all electric, including supporting charging infrastructure
- Reduction in waste and/or improvement in recycling ratios
- Investment in infrastructure, machinery, plant, property and processes to lower carbon and greenhouse gas emissions
- Investment to improve water and energy efficiency
- Support for companies who deliver positive environmental impacts for regional areas and communities
- Eco-efficient or circular economy activities
- Waste management and recycling sector
- Renewable energy – multiple subsectors including Solar, Wind, Hydro, Waste, Heat Pumps
A bit like the scale of the problem, there is a very long list of activities and types of investment that are covered under Green Commercial Finance – but I take great encouragement from the fact that there are so many ways for you to be rewarded for playing your part.
Far from an opportunistic blog to piggy back onto this week’s headline news about the COP26 conference, this is just the start of us playing our part by helping UK businesses source greener funding. And to be clear – we don’t earn anything more by pointing you in this direction, and in some cases it may be the opposite – but that is not what drives our work for you.
We are told that we are at the point where ‘putting change off’ will make that change too late.
Don’t put off playing your part – ask us how to use Green Commercial Finance in your business TODAY.
Mark Grant, November 2021.
