If your business wants to do a building upgrade you may have access to government enabled finance. Environmental Upgrade Finance is a fixed rate, long term loan that gives you access to the capital you need to unlock savings and make your building more sustainable.
Repayments are made through your local council, over terms up to 20 years, meaning your business could be cash-flow positive in year one.
Any type of business can apply, provided:
This includes Agriculture, Commercial Office Building, Tourism and Commercial and Industrial properties.
Up to
100%
finance
Cashflow
Positive
terms
Our finance can be used to fund a range of environmental and building upgrade projects that comply with the relevant state-based government legislation. Our team can guide you on the eligibility process, but if the works improve the energy, water, environmental efficiency or sustainability of existing buildings, they will likely qualify. Finance can also be used for many of the auxiliary, soft and hard costs associated with these projects. Our three financial products are designed to meet the needs of different businesses pursuing the most popular upgrade projects.
A new way to finance
environmental upgrades
as part of significant
renovation and
repositioning
projects
A fixed rate, long term solar
PV & battery finance
solution for commercial
installations, bringing
power into your
own hands
A flexible, long term loan for
innovative environmental
upgrade projects,
including energy
efficiency, waste
management,
water, retrofits
and more
Our finance is currently enabled in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. Look up your address
to see if it's available to businesses in your council area.
The Sustainable Australia Fund was established by the City of Melbourne in 2002 as a part of their eco-city vision. In 2019 the fund was recapitalised and scaled, in partnership with Bank Australia, to drive environmental upgrades at a national scale.
We are Australia’s leading provider of Environmental Upgrade Finance. We've invested more than $30m in environmental upgrades for Australian businesses, saving more than 300,000 tonnes of emissions from entering the atmosphere.
We work with businesses like yours to improve your cash flow while making the world a better place. Complete the form on the right and our team will take you through how it could help your business.
Lance Petersen
Hussey & Co
General Manager
“Since the last 99kW solar system was installed through EUF last year, our business has realised a $14,000 reduction in our power bills. We expect this new solar installation of 505 kW to multiply these savings five-fold.
“EUF has been a great way for our business to simply access finance with a favourable rate and term.”
Hussey & Co
Hussey & Co is a lettuce farm on the Morning Peninsula that delivers quality produce to Australia and overseas. With 74 acres of land, multiple sheds and industrial processing facilities, it relies heavily on energy to stay in business.
Energy consumption was paralysingly high, and with prices increasing this posed a significant threat for the company to stay price competitive with outside competitors.
After initially installing a roof-mounted system and realising $14k pa of savings, Hussey & Co were so impressed they decided to take out another EUA almost immediately for a ground-mounted system.
The solar upgrades saved over $86,000 / year in electricity costs. It also cuts 754 tonnes of carbon emissions, which is the equivalent of taking 161 cars off the road each year.
Roni Karika
Impact Investment Group
Senior Asset Manager
“EUAs provide a low-cost capital option.”
Impact Investment Group
Impact Investment Group acquired 401 Collins St in 2014 with the intention of transforming it into a prime blue-chip address.
401 Collins St is an iconic art-deco building in the heart of Melbourne’s banking district. Built more than 80 years ago in 1936, it has aged significantly and lacks modern features. It’s NABERS rating of 2.5 was seen as a barrier to securing a strong, long-term tenant.
Restoration began in 2017. Finance for the environmental works were sourced via an EUA (Environmental Upgrade Agreement), while the funds for other renovations were sourced via a traditional bank loan. This combination of two lenders provided diversity to Impact’s capital stack at an affordable rate.
Since completing the renovations, Impact Investment Group have successfully tenanted the building to co-working franchise WeWork on a 15-year contract. In addition, power bills for the property have significantly reduced – electricity by 32% and gas by 16%.
Kevin Minogue
Minogue Dairy Farm
Owner
“The process for applying was really simple actually… It was just a phone call. Sustainable Australia Fund sent me the required paperwork and virtually did all the correspondence with the council; it was really straightforward.”
Minogue Dairy Farm
Greater Shepparton City Council
For the Minogue Dairy Farm in Shepparton, a blackout in November 2017 led to loss of production over a period of 6 weeks when milking was at its peak. To make matters worse, his livestock experienced health issues associated with the inability to milk them.
Kevin used the opportunity to rethink how the dairy farm could overcome power outages in the future and decided to look into solar energy. Not only would this provide a battery back-up should an outage occur, it would also provide cost savings to the business over time.
After attending a seminar, Kevin reached out to Sustainable Australia Fund for advice and support. We supported him through the process to ensure all his questions and needs were met.
With financial impact to the business his biggest concern, Kevin calculated whether the figures would stack up. The great news is that after installing the new solar system, the farm is 90% self-sufficient and Kevin is feeling confident in the future. No longer will he need to worry about significant disruptions to business operations.
Chris Langdon
HJ Langdon
CEO
“I now have peace of mind that a certain portion of my energy bill will not be affected by any increases in energy bills, and that gives me a lot of confidence when planning for the future of the company. We want to be around for our 200th anniversary and beyond.”
HJ Langdon
HJ Langdon is an Australian, fifth generation family owned specialist food company offering a range of ingredients, services and niche food products in Asia Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. The current trading premise was built in 2002 and contains refrigeration, storage, a humidifier, office and covers over 19,000 sqm. It’s an energy hungry facility that has been feeling the effects of increasing power bills.
HJ Langdon engaged our partner Beon Energy Solutions to explore options to reduce their operating costs and move towards sustainability. Our team worked with Beon, the client and Brimbank City Council to arrange the finance and ensure the project moved quickly and smoothly. At the time of installation this was the largest EUF funded solar installation in Australia, and Brimbank City Council’s first EUF project.
Installation of a 430.10kW mounted solar array. The project was funded by an Environmental Upgrade Agreement over 7 years.
Peter Houghton
Rye Hotel
Owner / Manager
“EUF is an opportunity to get ahead of the game, to assist businesses financially to manage their risk to the inevitable increases in future energy costs.
“We could never have come up with that kind of money to fund solar panels on our own, so we’re very grateful to Sustainable Australia Fund for their help and making that happen.”
Rye Hotel
Rye Hotel is a well-established business which includes a bistro, café, beer garden, bar, function rooms and resort style hotel with conference facilities. The accommodation facilities include 13 beach-front plus 30 poolside suites. Owner and manager Peter Houghton had been planning the installation of solar panels at the site for some time, however, the main obstacle when contemplating a solar panel installation of this size was the upfront cost. EUF overcame this cost barrier, allowing the savings from reduced power bill to pay for the repayments.
This upgrade resulted in a 25% immediate saving on accounts, allowing the savings to cover the loan repayments. The expected savings over the 25-year asset lifetime are $560k
Want more information, but not ready to talk to anyone just yet? Download our helpful info pack with details exactly how EUF works, what works can be funded, the benefits for business owners, tenants and installers, and how it could benefit your business.
When you're ready to talk to us, fill out the enquiry form or give us a ring and one of our team will take you through each step of the process, to get your building upgrade underway.
If you’re a commercial tenant, you might think solar is out of reach. Getting your landlord to agree to costly building upgrades may seem like an i...
Read full article
Get in quick! Solar Victoria has $3,500 rebates for small ...
Read full article
Do you have questions about Environmental Upgrade Finance or the application process? Sustainable Australia Fund will be hosting weekly webinar...
Read full article
