SMALL businesses from across Cambridgeshire are being urged to take advantage of free support and assistance from Resource Efficiency East to help cut costs and improve efficiency – while they still can.

SMALL businesses from across Cambridgeshire are being urged to take advantage of free support and assistance from Resource Efficiency East to help cut costs and improve efficiency – while they still can.

REE director Antony Gough said: “We expect to be able to fund our free services until December, but in the current climate demand for support has been high and, once we’ve allocated our budget, we won’t be able to assist businesses after that point.

“So we are urging businesses to contact us now and discuss how we might be able to help them. The businesses we’ve worked with so far have seen that making even a small change to how they operate can save significant amounts from their bottom line.”

There are three services available to individual businesses, and each follows the same format, providing a site visit and a concise report highlighting opportunities for improvements. In addition businesses can opt for three months of follow-up support by e-mail and telephone designed to help the company implement the recommended cost-saving measures.

The ‘Business Resource Review’ is a general review of the business that aims to highlight the how your business can use materials, water and energy more efficiently. To date over 550 small businesses in the region have benefited from this service, with average identified savings of around �7,000 per company, REE said.

The ‘Water Efficiency Review’ aims to identify measures that could be implemented in order to reduce water use and save money. It is aimed at high-end water users such as businesses from the food and drink, manufacturing or leisure industries.

The ‘Environmental Management System (EMS) Review’ aims to assist businesses looking to explore the practicalities of adopting an environmental management system. An EMS is a management tool that helps businesses continuously improve their performance and helps ensure compliance with key legislation.

To date the programme has identified over �3.5million worth of cost savings for businesses in the East of England, REE claims.

INFORMATION: Full details about all free services offered by REE can be found at http://www.resourceefficiencyeast.org.uk/. The organisation IS jointly funded by the East of England Development Agency and the European Regional Development Fund.