SMEs across the country are being encouraged to avail of the grants that are available to them to improve energy efficiency.
New Amárach research carried out behalf of the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment found that more than four in five businesses say sustainability is important to the day-to-day running of their business.
The survey of 344 SMEs shows that two in five had taken steps such as insulating their buildings or changing their windows in the past two years to improve their energy efficiency.
"It's really encouraging to see businesses reducing their costs by tackling the energy usage in their buildings" said Peter Burke, Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke.
"There is however another sizeable cohort of businesses (44%) who cite upfront investment costs as a barrier to becoming more sustainable," he added.
Minister Burke is encouraging these business to avail of the grants available.
"That's why I'd ask SMEs to avail of the Local Enterprise Offices' Energy Efficiency Grant (EEG) and the SEAI's Building Energy Upgrade Scheme (BEUS) to buy energy efficient equipment and to retrofit their buildings," he said.
"I changed the terms and conditions of the energy efficient grant last year so that a 75% grant is now available, up to a maximum of €10,000, which can make a huge difference to energy bills," he stated,
"In 2025, 681 small business were approved for the EEG at estimated value of €5.7m, while 186 BEUS grants with an estimated value of €3.36m were approved," he added.
