Energy conservation ranks with motherhood and apple pie, but for many small businesses the upfront costs of renovation and retrofit are daunting.
Now the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/SEP) is offering up to $400,000 in loans to small businesses to retrofit their buildings.
The so-called Advanced Energy Retrofit Demonstration Program is intended to promote energy-savings measures in commercial buildings smaller than 250,000 square feet and to accelerate the development and commercialization of promising clean and alternative energy technologies.
“This program will encourage the use of advanced energy efficiency products in building renovations, reducing costs and creating jobs,” says RoseAnn B. Rosenthal, President & CEO of Ben Franklin.
BFTP/SEP is partnering with the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on the program. “The opportunity being offered by Ben Franklin will help accelerate the adoption by the region's building owners of advanced building technologies and complement the EEB Hub's mission to reduce energy use in Greater Philadelphia's building stock by 20% by 2020,” says Laurie Actman, the hub's deputy director.
Companies with fewer than 500 employees in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties are eligible. Applicants could be building owners, facility managers, tenants, mechanical/electrical/plumbing design firms, energy and design professionals and others with building renovation projects using energy retrofit measures. An email notice of intent to apply is due by noon, Friday, March 15 and the deadline for completed proposals in April 15.
Source: BFTP/SEP
Writer: Elise Vider