Enhance reputation and compliance:

• The Salix conditional grant allows your senior executive to state that real actions are being taken
• It can help assist with compliance and targets, for example: Carbon Reduction Commitment, Comprehensive Area Assessment , display certificates and local area agreements
• The Fund and the projects it enables are a tangible demonstration of green credentials and not just greenwash
• Savings demonstrate good asset/business management

Provide focus:

• It introduces a discipline around energy management and establishes formal links between energy, sustainability, maintenance and finance teams
• It allows energy management to become a strategic issue for the Board
• Our funding allows consolidation of a number of projects that would fail individually in competition with “core” spending.
• It requires a review of whether enough energy management resource is in place
• It is supported by a compliancy tool which aids good project identification

Provide or release funding:

• External funding significantly increases the likelihood of agreement to project commitment
• The ring fenced fund safeguards budgets from annularity problems
• Energy savings are seen to free up resources for core services
• Energy savings help offset price rises when they kick in
• Salix funding protects marginal energy efficiency budgets that are usually the first to be cut when capital budgets are under pressure

Project management:

• Once the fund is approved, your Relationship Manager works with your nominated energy team to set timescales and assist in project management throughout the entire process. You will need to have someone to manage the Fund but you can use external consultants to manage the delivery of the project by including their time within the cost of the project itself.

Internal and external communication:

• Your Relationship Manager can advise you on internal and external communication: for example, how to turn internal audiences into champions; how to develop marketing tools and collateral; how to develop relationships and project partnerships with schools, leisure centres, care centres and other institutions within your remit; and putting clients in touch with each other to share experience and best practice.

Technical support:

• Salix provides access to highly skilled technical experts through our delivery partners. We support your progress through our on-line monitoring tool.

Linked thinking:

• The Salix fund provides organisational focus around which action can be driven. This includes linking up finance, energy and environment departments, bringing together large and small projects that are otherwise scattered across the organisation.

Making savings pay:

• Financial savings gained from the energy efficiency measures are returned to the fund until the original capital investment is repaid. The recycled money must then be used for further investment while the organisation continues to benefit from the energy and CO2 savings. Salix works with its partners to identify projects that are set to have the best long-term impact. Providing most of the fund continues to be spent on compliant projects, we will not ask you for your original investment to be returned.