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SD-scene: Issue 14; Apr / May 2008

SD-scene is the bi-monthly newsletter highlighting progress being made in sustainable development. To sign up for the newsletter, enter your details on the home page.

Getting down to business

At the beginning of this month, Prime Minister Gordon Brown addressed UK business leaders on the challenge of climate change. His message wasn’t one of doom and gloom, but focused on its opportunities for business; the opportunity to create jobs, to build businesses, to grow exports, to drive productivity and creativity. This issue’s Whatever Next? explores some of the ways that the Government is working with business and to support business to meet this challenge.

The framework

Prince of Wales and Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown told business leaders to prepare for a “technological revolution” and embrace the opportunities available to them in tackling climate change.

He was addressing UK’s business leaders at the Prince of Wales’ groundbreaking May Day Summit. Run by Business in the Community, the 800-strong May Day Network is the UK’s largest gathering of businesses and organisations committed to taking action together on climate change.

The Summit saw Gordon Brown announce the launch of Building a low carbon economy: unlocking innovation and skills, the Government’s response to a report by the Commission on Environmental Markets and Economic Performance (CEMEP). CEMEP was set up eighteen months ago to advise Government on how the UK could make the most of the potential economic benefits of the transition to a low carbon, sustainable economy. The Government’s response sets out how it will make the UK one of the best locations in the world to develop and introduce low-carbon and resource-efficient products, processes, services and business models.

Prime Minister, Gordon Brown outlines the key ways the government will support business to move to a low carbon economy.
“We are committed to building nothing less than a low carbon economy, both here in the United Kingdom and round the world.
A low carbon society will not emerge from business as usual. It will require new thinking and new technologies, new forms of economic activity and social organisation, new forms of consumer behaviour and lifestyles, and of course the creativity, innovation and entrepreneurialism to drive and unlock the talents and skills of our companies.
Now businesses will rightly ask, what will government do to support them as they make these efforts? First, a clear, credible, long-term policy framework. We know that only a clear framework will encourage business to invest and ensure the timely development of innovative products and services.  The second is our support for creating the conditions for innovation through our approach to regulation, to procurement and to research and development.  Our third priority is to ensure that our workforce has the skills and expertise for these environmental industries and occupations of the future… We are also seeking, fourthly, to encourage changes in consumer behaviour. We know we will only succeed if individuals and communities, as well as government and business, feel part of the solution.
Read the whole speech here.

Of course government has already been working hard with business to cut carbon emissions. Defra, for example overseas major climate change instruments like the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), and the Climate Change Agreements (CCAs). Defra has also recently proposed a Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), which will apply mandatory emissions trading to cut carbon emissions from large commercial and public sector organisations.

 

Supporting innovation

Innovation will be central to building the low carbon economy. As the CEMEP report argues, government can support innovation through the right regulatory design, through appropriate use of public procurement, and through specific policies for research, development and demonstration of new technologies.

New investment, for example, is being directed into sustainable energy technology in areas such as offshore wind and marine energy technology tthrough the Energy Technologies Institute, the Technology Strategy Board and the UK Environmental Transformation Fund, a new initiative to bring forward the development of new low carbon energy and energy efficient technologies in the UK.

Also working to accelerate this transition to a low carbon economy is the Carbon Trust, a private company supported by among others Defra and BERR.  Around half of its business is focused on carbon management, helping clients to reduce their carbon emissions.  The rest of the Carbon Trust’s work is concerned with bringing through new technologies and creating the right environment for them to succeed. Its incubator programme, for example, has been helping businesses bring ideas to market, whether start-up companies, entrepreneurs, or corporates. The Carbon Trust provides support for a client’s development, working with them on everything from patenting technology through to getting the company up and running and engaging with the market.

Rachael Nutter, Business Incubator Manager at the Carbon Trust
“Far more companies in the last couple of years now have climate change on their agenda. There’s still a real mixture in terms of the extent to which people are taking it seriously. Some, especially SMEs, often don’t know what to do about it or don’t necessarily have the resources to devote to tackling climate change. The reason there’s a lot of interest in clean technologies is not because it’s fashionable and consumers are into it, it’s because there is potential to make money out of it. A number of drivers are pushing the economic viability of environmental technologies, such as energy price rises and concerns about security of supply, and climate change policy and regulation is starting to follow. Often it’s down to simply creating better products and services. There isn’t a silver bullet - tackling carbon emissions needs multiple technologies on both the supply and demand side. The UK has a strong research base, and we try to identify targeted interventions, which would help bring that technology to market. One of those areas is third generation solar photovoltaics. There’s lots of fantastic research going on in the UK on this. The Carbon Trust invited proposals from consortia that could bring together all the pieces of the jigsaw – all the things you need to try and develop cost effect solar photovoltaics – with a view to setting that up as a commercial business. We’ll put several million into that into the next couple of years.

The Carbon Trust has also been working with companies to help consumers reduce their carbon footprint. For example, Tesco’s carbon label scheme, a partnership with the Carbon Trust, will allow shoppers to choose between high and low carbon goods. In April, the retailer put carbon labels on 20 of its product lines as a first step towards putting the labels on all its goods. Carrying a small logo of a footprint, the labels show the amount of greenhouse gas emitted in the course of making the goods.

 

Local leaders

Local Government too has been hard at work with business to promote the benefits of tackling climate change. In March this year, for example, the City of London Corporation was awarded ‘Beacon Status’ for its pioneering efforts to address the effects of climate change in the Square Mile.

Simon Mills, Environmental Coordinator at the City of London Corporation describes some of the work being done with City businesses to tackle climate change.
“We became aware of the issue of climate change because of our constituents. It’s a little known fact that there is an immense amount of environmental expertise in the City of London, for example, in the banks and insurance companies. The City Climate Pledge is one initiative with our constituents. It’s a very simple three step process: businesses measure their carbon dioxide, take steps to reduce it, and can then offset a proportion of unavoidable emissions using an accredited and verifyable offset scheme. Because it is publicly reported there is pressure on businesses to increase their performance. Also, we have some of the most exciting buildings going up in London and developers here are very keen to enhance the environmental credentials of their buildings, because they believe it to be a sound marketing point. The most exiciting project we’ve done recently is the London Accord, an expert report covering every aspect of environmental technology to show how decision-makers in the public and private sectors can make various technologies more attractive.”

The practical side

Government is also committed to giving practical advice to business on how they can run their enterprises more efficiently. For example, Defra has recently updated its position statement on implementing an environmental management system (EMS) (PDF, 70 KB), outlining benefits to business and the public sector.

An EMS can help all types and sizes of organisations meet their environmental and sustainability targets as well as contribute to national targets. Not dissimilar to other systems for, say, quality management or health and safety, an EMS requires an organisation to identify its environmental impacts and then set objectives to improve its environmental performance. An EMS is also designed to help an organisation comply with environmental laws and regulations, communicate procedures, and as a result of good resource management, could deliver financial benefits.

 

Di Yardley, Safety, Health and Environment manager at Chester Zoo talks us through their EMS.
Chester Zoo is very much based on conservation, with the majority of the species here endangered or under threat. The main driver for implementing the Environmental Management System came from our director general who, following a trip to another zoo, the first to get ISO 14001 in Europe, thought it would be a good thing for us to do as it is very much in line with our core aims. The EMS ISO 140001 makes sure that you are managing the process of improving environmental performance properly, and in particular that you have a third party verifier to come in and monitor you. We’ve been doing a lot of work on energy and, as the zoo expands, we’re moving towards BREAM standard for new builds, which means that when we bring a new building in we make sure it is energy efficient as it can be. Our old Orang-utan exhibit, for example, was a small, old building. We now have a larger, better environment for the animals in a new facility, which is built to better energy efficiency standards. The benefit from ISO 140001 - certainly for an industry like ours - is that it helps raise your profile. And as it’s an internationally recognised standard so it puts us on a level that everyone understands.

For practical advice on all aspects of improving environmental performance, visit Business Link, the government’s business support, information and advice service.

Updated: 2 June 2008