Lowry has been a landmark exhibition and performance space on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal in Salford for 25 years.
As a not-for-profit organisation, Lowry has faced financial barriers when it comes to pursuing sustainability and energy-efficiency upgrades. Much of their funding comes from personal donations, grants and visitor payments. However, these funds are needed to contribute to the organisation’s building upkeep, performance and exhibition costs, and an extensive community outreach and engagement programme.
Lowry first approached Green Economy in 2024 requesting energy efficiency advice and grant funding support. Emma Smallwood, Development Manager for Philanthropy, was introduced to Alasdair Dalzel-Job, Technical Lead at Green Economy, to explore the most impactful actions the organisation could take.
“Being based in Salford, we recognised Lowry as being eligible for Green Economy’s Energy Efficiency Grant.”
Lowry used the Green Economy Energy Efficiency Grant to fund 50 per cent of their lighting upgrade project. Green Economy provided £5,000 for the replacement of their fluorescent lighting fittings with new LED units including motion sensor technology. This technology improves the efficiency of lighting upgrades especially in low use areas such as stairwells, corridors and storage areas.
Lowry finished installing energy efficient lighting in their stairwells operated by sensor technology in spring 2025 and have saved 30,400kWh in energy and knocked £9,000 off their annual energy bill, equating to 19 tCO2e, as a result of the project.
Emma Smallwood, said:
“My colleagues and I found the process of securing Green Economy Grant Funding to be really positive. The application form was straightforward and didn’t require too much detailed input – this is really important for organisations which are under-resourced or juggling lots of other projects. We found the team at Green Economy to be friendly and very supportive, keen to help us successfully complete and submit the application.
I’d recommend other organisations to explore grant funding from Green Economy. We were of course absolutely thrilled to be awarded the funding, without which we couldn’t have completed this work, which will have huge long-term impact on our sustainability and the community projects we’re able to deliver.”
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