New Research Shows More Firms Setting Carbon Reduction Targets

20 October 2010

The number of businesses setting targets to reduce their carbon emissions has risen significantly in the last three years, according to a new survey, conducted by Accountancy magazine in conjunction with RBS Corporate & Institutional Banking, comparing business priorities in 2008 with those for 2011.

Fifty-one per cent of respondents said their business had set a target for reducing carbon emissions in 2011, an increase of around 50 percent on 2008, when around a third of firms had targets in place. Large companies are the most likely to have set themselves green targets in 2011. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of organisations with a turnover of more than £25m are working towards specific carbon-reduction targets next year, compared to 52 per cent in 2008.

One factor influencing this shift is the growing global market for low carbon goods and services, which is projected to rise to more than £4 trillion by the middle of the next decade. Other factors include businesses’ desire to keep energy costs as low as possible, and energy efficiency incentives introduced by Government earlier this year.

Tim Boag, managing director of Structured Finance, RBS Corporate & Institutional Banking, said: “The rise in the number of companies setting targets for cutting carbon emissions can be explained by three key factors: the perennial need to make cost savings, the growing market for low carbon goods and services, and the introduction of new legislation.

“With the global market for low carbon goods and services expected to grow considerably in the next few years there will be an abundance of commercial opportunities for businesses to exploit. Innovative manufacturing companies stand to benefit from this shift to a low carbon economy and the export opportunities it will bring.”

Gemma Howard