THE GLOOM of the current economic climate is making more companies go "green".
The National Environment Agency (NEA) on Friday announced that $3.22 million has been allocated to 121 companies in the private sector under a scheme that co-funds energy audits.
Launched in 2005, the $10 million Energy Efficiency Improvement Assistance Scheme (EASe) subsidises half the cost for companies in the manufacturing and building sectors to conduct detailed studies on their power consumption, capped at $200,000 per project.
As of last year, 36 companies in the manufacturing and 85 in the building sector, have applied for funding under the scheme, which identifies potential areas for greater energy efficiency that will help companies cut their power bill.
Applications have been increasing over the last four years.
From only four approved applications in 2005, the number jumped more than 10 times to 42 in 2006. Last year, almost three times that number - 121 applications - were cleared.
The scheme, which complements the $50 million Sustainable Energy Fund launched last year, is part of a wider push by the Goverment to promote invcstment in green technology across all sectors of the economy.
Last year, Dr Amy Khor, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources acknowledged that after conducting energy audits, companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), could still be deterred by the amount of investment needed.
Millions of dollars can be needed to make the switch to energy efficient technology. This can be costly, particularly now with the current economic crisis.
The government responded by offering the S$22 million Grant for Energy Efficient Technologies (Greet) Scheme.
Greet co-funds up to half the cost of new equipment or technologies to companies, up to S$2 million per project.
One company to see the benefits of investing in green technologies is SingPost. The public postal licensee invested $1.9 million in installing new energy efficient cooling units at its Paya Lebar premises two years ago.
The company has since managed to shave $1.2 million - or 23 per cent - off its annual power bill.
