re-tooling for Climate Change Grant 20 October 08 - Round 1 Closing Date for Application
ARE YOU... .... an Australian registered SME Company? .... planning projects specifically to improve the energy and / or water efficiency of your production processes?... able to measure the reduction in carbon footprint or resource usage resulting from the proposed project?.... able to finance from own resources at least two thirds of the project cost?

If so, you may be eligible for a competitive Re-tooling for Climate Change Grant.

The Re-tooling for Climate Change Grant Program is part of the Clean Business Australia initiative and is intended to help SME Australian manufacturers improve the energy and / or water efficiency of their production processes.

The Program provides grants on a competitive basis, from $10,000 up to a maximum $500,000, to fund up to one third of eligible expenditure on approved projects. The maximum allowed project period is 18 months. The grants are taxable in the hands of the recipient. The Program will provide $75 million in Grant funding over four years.

Applications for the first round of the Grant Program must be lodged with AusIndustry by 5:00pm on 20 October 2008

To be eligible to apply for the Re-tooling for Climate Change Program, applicants must:

  • be a non-tax exempt manufacturing company incorporated under the Corporations Act 2001;
  • have a combined annual turnover (including each related body corporate) of less than A$100 million in each of the three financial years before the financial year in which the application is lodged;
  • be able to demonstrate an ability to fund from its own (non-government) resources the remaining two thirds of project costs that are not met by the Grant.

Typical eligible projects may include:

  • investing in small-scale cogeneration plants that capture waste energy and use it to produce electricity on site;
  • stormwater capture and improving water recycling for re-use in the manufacturing process;
  • improving insulation and recovering waste heat to improve manufacturing process efficiency; and
  • process re-engineering, involving the adoption of energy efficient manufacturing tools
    that substantially reduce the energy used in the production process.

Certain projects and activities are ineligible for Grant support.These include but are not limited to:

  • routine replacement or upgrade of plant and equipment that are part of the plant and equipment's normal effective life cycle;\
  • capacity expansion projects that would have been undertaken in the normal course of business;
  • establishing a new production facility, greenfield production site ,or a facility for a new product;
  • projects that improve the energy and/or or water efficiency of the business in general, but without specific focus on the production process; and
  • the costs of preparing the Application and routine administration expenses.

Merit Criteria against which Applications will be compared are:
• Potential for reduction of your environmental footprint.
• Scope and impact of process improvement.
• Organisational capacity/capability to undertake the project.

Eligible Project Expenditures must be directly attributable to the project and be incurred on agreed project activities within the agreed project period. There are also limits on the time period within which cost must be paid. Eligible Project Expenditures include cash (as opposed to in-kind) considerations paid for:

  • Direct Labour costs of employees directly employed on the agreed project’s core elements, including technical project management
  • Agreed Contract costs incurred on agreed project activities
  • Costs of acquisition / construction / lease (excluding interest) of agreed plant and equipment.

The closing date for Applications for Round 1 is 20 October 2008.

Please call Michael Lynch of BSI R&D Services for further details.

Via email : mlynch@bsi.com.au
By Phone : (02) 9212 5505
By Fax: : (02) 9212 5545

 BSI