The Irish Government has announced grants totalling €14 million (£12.4m) for businesses to deliver energy efficiency in the design, construction and management of buildings.

Applicants must follow the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland’s (SEAI) Excellence in Energy Efficient Design (EXEED) standard and embed energy efficiency in the design of their projects, focusing on energy uses such as heating, cooling, refrigeration, compressed air and business processes.

This is expected to enable energy savings to be maximised at the outset and help businesses become “more efficient, competitive and resilient”.

The grant is open to public and private organisations that are in the design phase of planning projects for new or existing buildings.

Eamon Ryan, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications said: “Buildings are a major source of CO2 emissions so to meet our climate goals we need to be innovative in how we design, build and manage them for optimum energy efficiency.

“The SEAI’s EXEED grant scheme supports designers and builders to be ambitious and put energy efficiency at the heart of their building and renovation projects. It makes both environmental and economic sense.”

SEAI has supported 135 projects through scheme, with carbon savings averaging 46% for new build projects and 14% for upgrade projects.