30 Apr 2009 06:04:06
UK businesses unconcerned with reducing CO2 emissions, study finds
Eight in ten businesses believe that UK government targets on the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are unrealistic.
What's more, two-thirds of companies believe that there is little advantage to possessing a small carbon footprint and, subsequently, are demoting CO2 reduction measures to focus on cost cutting.
Those are the headline findings of energy company npower's latest Business Energy Index, which revealed that the economic downturn has prompted most British firms to discard their environmental goals in favour of managing costs.
In total, 97 percent of companies admitted to being more concerned with reducing overheads than emissions.
However, 68 percent of respondents did express the belief that it is important for the UK government to lead efforts in reducing global CO2 emissions.
Julia Lynch-Williams, director of energy services at npower, advised firms that they can cut costs and emissions simultaneously by making energy efficiency a priority.
"While it's understandable that businesses are more focused on the bottom-line in the current economic crisis, we would encourage them to see energy management as an effective means of reducing emissions as well as costs," she elaborated.
Ms Lynch-Williams also called on the government to do more to highlight commercial opportunities that could present themselves to businesses that adopt low-carbon operations.
Provisional statistics published in March by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform indicated that carbon dioxide emissions from the commercial services sector fell over the period from 1990 to 2008.
http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file50354.pdf
