Environmental sustainability can no longer be viewed as a public relations exercise or form part of a marketing plan.
A lower carbon economy is almost a certainty in the long term. As fossil fuels run out and are replaced by other forms of energy: organisations of all sizes need to start being pro-active.
The UK Government introduced the 2008 Climate Change Act to establish the world’s first legally binding climate change target. It aims to reduce the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050.
The government has introduced carbon budgets that place a restriction on the total amount of greenhouse gases the UK can emit over a 5-year period. The UK is the first country to set legally binding carbon budgets.
This legislation requires larger organisations to actively monitor, manage and reduce the CO2 emission that they are responsible for. The legislation currently only applies to larger organisations but it is widely accepted that this will be extended as the scheme develops to smaller businesses – its time to get ahead of the game.
How Are Your Green Credentials?
In the commercial sector research by the Carbon Trust has shown that 60 percent of multinational companies said they would be prepared to pay a premium for environmentally sensitive suppliers in the future. How true this is in reality remains to be seen but it marks a shift towards taking more responsibility for environmental issues this is helped by considering more modern HVAC equipment.
