SME Sustainability Grant Scheme (SVM).

The SME Sustainability Grant Scheme (SVM) helps you as an SME entrepreneur to make your business more sustainable. With this subsidy, you receive compensation for hiring a consultant for tailored energy advice and its implementation.

• Directly arrange your request

Amount of subsidy and duration

Start date: Saturday, April 1, 2023 - 09:00 (CET)

End date: Saturday, September 30, 2023 - 17:00 (CET)

Grant amount (if conditions are met):
The subsidy amount for sustainability advice is minimum € 400 and maximum € 750. The maximum subsidy amount is € 2,500 for advice and support together.

Total budget: €14,400,000

The SME Sustainability Grant Scheme (SVM) helps you as an SME entrepreneur to make your business more sustainable. With this subsidy, you receive compensation for hiring a consultant for tailored energy advice and its implementation.

• Directly arrange your request

For whom.

This grant is for:

• SMEs up to 250 employees (FTEs) and annual sales of up to €50 million;
• Who own one or more business premises or rent business premises (or space therein);
• and not under the legal energy savings obligation fall. This means that your premises per year will therefore not exceed 25,000 m³ natural gas (equivalent) and 50,000 kWh of electricity consumed.

Did you apply for this subsidy in 2021 or in 2022 for a commercial building? If so, you will not receive another grant for that commercial building in 2023.

What do you get a grant for?

You will be reimbursed for 80% of the cost of:

• An energy recommendation for making your premises and/or operations more sustainable;
• support for the implementation of the energy-saving and sustainability measures in this opinion.

The energy advice deals with potential energy and CO₂-saving measures in your business premises and operations. The investments required for this are also included in the advice.

You will receive a grant for costs incurred from April 1, 2023 and applied for by 5 p.m. on September 30, 2023.

Examples

Examples of business premises sustainability measures are:

• LED lighting
• insulation or HR++ glass
• solar panels
• purchase of energy efficient appliances

Examples of measures in operations:

• purchase of electric vans
• energy-efficient kitchen appliances
• ICT equipment

Who gives you advice and support?

You have the advice drawn up by an energy consultant from outside your company. He or she investigates and advises you about the sustainability measures and the investments required for this. The energy advice must cover all aspects of the building and business operations. For example, does advice focus only on solar panels or LED lighting? Then it is not complete energy advice and you will not receive a subsidy.

After issuing the advice, your energy advisor can also help you implement the measures from the advice. The following support activities will then also be reimbursed to you:

• Requesting and reviewing one or more quotes
• applying for grants or funding opportunities
• drafting and issuing orders
• applying for the SME Sustainability Grant (only if any of the above activities have also been carried out)

Note!
There are self-appointed consultants operating who will tell you that they are working on our (RFO) behalf, that the SVM will become mandatory next year, or who will offer you the SVM for free. This is false in all these cases. Do not be persuaded by them.

How much subsidy will you receive?

The subsidy amount for sustainability advice is minimum € 400 and maximum € 750. The maximum subsidy amount for advice and support together is € 2,500.

You apply for a maximum of one grant for each business premises for advice and one for support. This can be done in one application or in 2 separate applications. That is up to you.

What expenses will you be reimbursed for?

Only the costs of advice and support from the energy advisor will be reimbursed. The investments in the measures themselves are not covered by this subsidy. Therefore, you will not be reimbursed for the purchase and installation costs of, for example, LED lighting or solar panels. You may be able to use other subsidies for this:

• Investment subsidy for renewable energy and energy conservation (ISDE)
• Energy investment allowance (EIA).

Terms as of April 1, 2023

To improve the quality of advice and support for you as a business owner, we have updated the scheme. This is new in 2023:

• You sign the 'Declaration Subsidy for Sustainability in SMEs' in which we inform you about the conditions. This states, among other things, that you know you are not obliged to have an energy advice drawn up.
• The energy consultant must have at least 2 years of experience advising SME entrepreneurs on energy conservation and sustainability. The advisor can demonstrate this.
• You attach the annual statement from your energy supplier to your application.
• We have tightened the requirements for the energy balance that the energy consultant prepares for you.
• You can apply for the grant for consulting and the grant for support separately. Are you applying for the grant for advice and the grant for support separately? Then you must commission a measure per application. In the case of advice this can be a simple measure. In the case of support, it concerns the measure for which you have received support.

View all terms and conditions for the SVM

How does the grant work?

1. Find an energy consultant that fits your business.
2. Get customized energy advice for your business.
3. From the advice, choose one or more sustainability measure(s) to implement.
4. If necessary, ask the energy advisor to also support you in implementing one or more measures from the advice.
5. Have your advisor apply for the grant in our digital application environment. You may also do this yourself.

Glossary of terms SVM

Preparing your application

• You provide the requested data. Your energy consultant prepares the advice and you commission one of the measures from the advice. At that point, you can apply for the subsidy for the advice.
• You ask your advisor for support in implementing one of the measures in the advice. Your advisor will help you, for example, with requesting and evaluating offers. After commissioning the measure, you can also apply for a subsidy for support.
• You may also apply for the grant for advice and the grant for support all at once. Then you only need to commission the measure for which you have received support.

Request

You can apply for this grant from April 1, 9 a.m. to September 30, 2023, 5 p.m.

You log in with eRecognition. For your application, you need at least level 2+ with authorization RFO services at level eH2+.

• Directly arrange your request

After your request

• We process grant applications in order of receipt until the budget runs out. You can find the budget still available on this page.
• You will receive a decision on your application within 8 weeks.