Thousands of UK businesses, big and small, are scrambling to reduce carbon emissions, and comply with new regulations. The Department for Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) targets non-energy intensive private and public sector organizations under the new Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC). Some 5000 companies will be affected by the scheme. A large portion of these assumed their low emissions kept them under the regulatory radar. However, offices, waiting rooms and stores are unwittingly generating over a third of total UK emissions.

Companies’ main responsibility is to produce evidence that at least 90% of a company’s emissions are accounted for under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), Climate Change Agreements or the CRC.

Proactive firms, such as Boots Alliance, began implementing their compliance and emissions reduction strategies. Richard Ellis told Ethical Corporation Institute, a London-based ethical business research institute, that Boots has already installed 275 mandatory half-hourly meters. These meters have enabled the company to identify and target energy wastage across its UK sites and generate energy savings of between 10%-15% at individual sites. The extent of its voluntary installations also indicates that the company will score well on the early action metric.

Other companies are only in the initial stages of developing a compliance strategy. Tardiness could harm their profits if strategies are not put in place quickly.

A recent Ethical Corporation Institute briefing advises managers and executives how leading companies design their emissions reduction strategies in the UK, what the key deadlines are and what challenges are being faced.

According to the Defra CRC team, the rules are designed to be “simplistic, with minimal administrative burden; revenue neutral (in that firms recoup the upfront costs via the revenue recycling scheme); and to overcome behavioural barriers with regard to energy efficiency.”

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