Whyalla City Council is leading the way to a greener future, assisting local businesses to do their part in helping address climate change.
Whyalla City Council joins 10 existing council partners in South Australia after the program received support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to grow this form of finance in 2019.
Building upgrade finance - also known as environmental upgrade finance - is a government-enabled program for upgrading existing buildings to be more environmentally friendly, improve overall sustainability and address climate change issues. Examples of works that can be undertaken include installation of solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations, water efficiency initiatives, replacing lighting and more.
Local business owners can take out a long-term loan for the works, which is then repaid through council’s rates system. Council’s involvement means businesses can access favourable and affordable finance terms.
Whyalla has become one of the first councils in South Australia to partner with Better Building Finance (BBF), to enable environmental finance to be offered to local businesses.
To date, Better Building Finance has worked with local councils to facilitate more than 100 environmental upgrade projects at an investment of more than $40 million, generating almost 10,000kW of solar power, which will reduce carbon emissions by around 500k tonnes over the life of the projects.
Ed Cotter, Executive Manager of BBF, welcomed Whyalla City Council to the program:
“We’re really excited to welcome Whyalla City Council to our program to make buildings better in South Australia,” Mr Cotter said.
“With the success we’ve had over the past few years, we know that this program can have a huge impact in supporting local businesses and helping councils deliver on their economic development and sustainability goals.”
Mayor Clare McLaughlin said this was yet another step in the right direction for Whyalla in improving its carbon footprint.
“Council is keen to support local businesses to play a role in minimising Whyalla’s overall carbon footprint, and making our community more sustainable.” Mayor McLaughlin said.
“The partnership with BBF provides easy access to this program, all without impacting local ratepayers, so it’s a win-win partnership for our community.”
To find out more about the initiative and how it can help your business, head to the website.
https://www.whyalla.sa.gov.au/business-and-development/building-upgrade-finance-program
Background
Better Building Finance (BBF) is Australia’s largest independent third-party service provider, helping councils establish and run Building Upgrade Finance programs for local businesses and the rest of their community. Better Building Finance was originally established by the Sustainable Australia Fund, and provides independent third-party services designed to make it easy for councils to enable, establish and promote the finance mechanism.
Sustainable Australia Fund is Australia’s leading provider of environmental upgrade finance – loans for building upgrades, repaid through council rates. Originally established by the City of Melbourne in 2002, in 2019 the Fund was significantly recapitalised and scaled to drive environmental upgrades across Australia.