The National Environment Agency (NEA) will provide grants to companies to offset part of their investment cost for energy efficient equipment.

NEA will release details of the funding scheme later.

Dr Amy Khor, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry for Environment and Water Resources said going green is not just for the multi-nationals with deep pockets.

Speaking at the opening of the fourth SME credit bureau conference on Friday, she said that increasingly, local businesses need to go green to remain cost-effective.

Dr Khor, who is also chairman of the National Climate Change Committee, pointed to a number of green incentives available to companies here.

Among them, a three-year-old energy efficiency improvement assistance scheme designed to help companies pay for energy audits.

However, of the 98 companies that have used the scheme so far, only five are SMEs, said Dr Khor.

Among the five, Aalst Chocolate is saving $52,000 - or shaving nine per cent off its electricity bill annually, after implementing the recommended energy saving measures.

Dr Khor acknowledged that companies may be put off by the amount of money needed to make the switch to more energy efficient technologies.

This is where the new NEA grant will help reduce the financial burden. The grant is part of a wider $50 million fund made available by the Government to encourage energy efficiency here.

As a further incentive to help companies go green, Dr Khor also announced a new award - the Efficiently Developing Growing Enterprise or Edge.

The winner - to be announced in two months' time - will receive US$10,000 (S$13,800) worth of IT consulting fees from computer giant IBM.