Greener choices

With a rise in environmental awareness and changes in legislation that favour low-emissions companies, many businesses are trying to reduce their carbon footprints.

This process of ‘greening industry’ is taking a carrot-and-stick approach. while cleaner, greener companies can differentiate themselves and become more attractive to customers through moving towards carbon neutrality, the government is driving them with legislation such as the Climate Change Levy.

Introduced in 2001, this tax on the use of energy in industry and commerce aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by at least 2.5 million tonnes a year by 2010, and help the UK meet its targets for reducing greenhouse gas output.

By making cleaner energy use comparable in price to traditional generation, the reforms aim to promote efficiency, stimulate investment in new technologies and encourage business to move to providers’ green tariffs, which use energy from sustainable sources.

But demand for clean energy is far outstripping supply. A study by Datamonitor found customers want to buy 34TWh of electricity from renewable sources in 2007, three times the 12.2TWh of accredited renewable electricity produced in the UK in 2006.