Environmental Grants

ECOS guides our clients through successful environmental grant applications. Environmental grants are an excellent tool for businesses to utilise as they grow and evolve to meet new challenges and opportunities. There are a number of grant options available, depending on the needs and objectives of your business.

Climate Action Voucher, Green Start, Green Plus, and Strategic Consultancy, are four such grants. The grants are available to qualifying businesses through Local Enterprise Office (LEO), Údarás na Gaeltachta, IDA and Enterprise Ireland.

Climate Action Voucher

Eligible cost element: service provider technical and advisory costs (2 days @ €900/day).

Assignment period: over 6 weeks 

• Develop a Sustainability Action Plan
  • Develop a sustainability/decarbonisation strategy and action plan.
  • Guidance on setting appropriate sustainability performance measures, KPIs and targets.  Guidance with alignment to suitable reporting and industry frameworks.
  • Guidance on data collection and calculating carbon footprint.
• Develop a Circular Economy ActionPlan
  • Understand the relevance of circular economy and innovation to your business.
  • Carry out a circular gap assessment.
  • Identify new opportunities for sustainable growth.
  • Prepare a plan to identify and develop circular economy ideas for a more circular product, process or service.

GreenStart

GreenStart provides an introduction to environmental best practice and helps in the preparation of a formalised environmental management structure. GreenStart is open to small and medium companies that are clients of Enterprise Ireland or IDA. Eligible companies can receive up to 80% funding.

• Up to €5,000 support to introduce environmental best practice systems to achieve cost and resource reduction. 
• Project cost: €6,300, grant: 80% 
• Eligible cost element: service provider training & advisory costs (7 days @ €900/day) 
• Assignment period: over 6 – 12 months 
• Available to HPSU’s, SME’s & Large Enterprise Ireland, Údarás na Gaeltachta, LEO (micro & small) & IDA client companies
• Eligible Activities 
• Assist with preparation of a basic environmental/energy/carbon/water management system to measure, manage & report based on ‘Plan, Do, Check, Act’ philosophy + provide suggestions on format/frequency of reports. 
• Guidance with a range of activities including Carbon Reduction Roadmap, Sustainability Strategy, Carbon Foot-printing, Metering roadmap, Life Cycle Assessment, Action plan for a more circular product, process or service, Sustainable Packaging, Sustainable Logistics, Plastic Management, Green Procurement & Tenders, Biodiversity action plan, Climate Adaptation, Sustainability Benchmarking, Employee and Customer Engagement, Aligning environmental practices to global/Irish sustainability reporting initiatives.

Green Plus

The Green Plus grant is designed to assist company managers develop a high level of environmental management capabilities and apply international best practices such as ISO 14001, ISO 50001 and ISO 14064. Clients are typically eligible for 50% funding.

• Project cost: Up to €100,000, grant: up to 50% Eligible cost element: 
• Service provider training & advisory costs (up to €900/day) 
• Up to 10 project team members salary costs (up to €200/day) 
• Training Course fees for specialised external courses that support project goals 
• Assignment period: over 12 – 18 months 
• Available to SME & Large Enterprise Ireland, Údarás na Gaeltachta & IDA client companies (& pilot HPSU’s, post investment & drawdown) 
• Eligible Activities 
  • Assist with preparation of an environmental/energy/carbon/water management system & align to international standards, e.g. ISO 14001, 50001, 14064-1
  • Greenhouse Gas Protocol 
  • Alliance for Water Stewardship 
  • Align to Sustainability Frameworks & Disclosure Platforms (e.g. Science Based Targets Initiative, Origin Green, CDP, GRI) 
  • Guidance with a range of activities similar to GreenStart

Strategic Consultancy

• Eligible activity: Develop an Organisational carbon reduction roadmap 
• Eligibility: SME’s & Large client companies with high/complex energy usage
• Max Project cost: €70,000, Grant 50% 
• Eligible cost: €900 per day
• Note: Large companies can only avail of Strategic Consultancy to develop an Organisational carbon reduction roadmap and are not eligible for other strategic assignments 
• Companies with a lower energy spend/less complex operations/at the early stages of their green journey
• are recommended to avail of GreenStart to develop their Carbon Reduction Roadmap 
• Energy audits mandated under the European Energy Efficiency Directive (SI 426 of 2014 and amended by SI 
• 626 of 2016 and SI 599 of 2019) cannot be supported as they are a legal requirement. 
• Energy Audits in addition to the mandatory energy audit can be supported. 
• An organisation is an obligated entity if it meets any one of the following criteria: 
  • A company that employs 250 people or more
  • A company with an annual turnover in excess of €50m and an annual balance sheet total in excess of €43m 

If you would like to know more about environmental grants for your business and information on how to apply, contact ECOS