COUNTY businesses have been going for green as they have been helped to access more than £100,000 in grants by a ground-breaking energy efficiency project.

Resource Efficient Worcestershire has drawn down European funding to support businesses such as Lesk Engineering Ltd in Worcester.

The precision engineering firm secured more than £2,000 to pay towards the costs of improved lighting which reduced its energy bills by around 30 percent.

This not only improved their profitability, but also reduced the amount of CO2 it produced.

Jim McBride, director of Lesk Engineering Ltd, said: "We recently moved into new larger and more modern premises in Worcester and discovered that the lighting was poor.

"We need efficient lighting as we are accredited precision engineers and so we spend a lot on lighting for our inspections.

"The new lighting has drastically improved the shop floor operating results and has happier workforce. Our electricity bills will come down too."

Working alongside Worcestershire.Business.Central, the support service working to re-invigorate the local economy, Resource Efficient Worcestershire arranges for county businesses to receive free assessments of their premises, equipment, processes and performance to identify potential to increase their energy efficiency.

The funds, which are available to firms based and trading in the county, with less than 250 employees, turn over less than £40 milliion and are outside the agricultural, retail, public, social welfare and educative sectors, are provided by Worcestershire County Council in partnership with Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce and the West Midlands European Regional Development Fund programme.

For more information call 01905 822 833 or visit business-central.co.uk/rew.