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Credit-crunched consumers still want to buy green

New research from the Carbon Trust Standard shows that consumers still want to buy green despite the current economic climate, with 62% of respondents saying environmental concerns influence their purchasing decisions as much as a year ago and just over a quarter saying they influence them ‘even more’ than in 2008.

The research shows that a business’s green credentials have a significant impact on consumer buying choices. Two thirds (66%) of consumers say it’s important to buy from environmentally responsible companies, with one in seven (14%) saying they have voted with their feet by deciding not to buy from a company based on its environmental reputation: almost a quarter have boycotted a company’s products because of its ethical reputation.

The YouGov survey of nearly 2,000 UK adults found support for clearer, more credible information on what companies are doing to reduce their environmental impact, with 70% admitting that they found it hard to identify which companies are environmentally responsible. Six in ten consumers (59%) are sceptical about the environmental claims companies make, and 44% would like more information on what companies are actually doing to be environmentally responsible.

The Carbon Trust Standard is the world’s first carbon award that requires an organisation to measure, manage and reduce its carbon footprint and make real reductions year-on-year. Among the first companies to have achieved the Carbon Trust Standard are printer suppliers Kyocera, Ricoh and HP.

www.carbontruststandard.com.

greenAgenda

East Midlands keeps track of savings

East Midlands Trains has

implemented a recycling scheme at its Neville Hill Depot in Leeds that is expected to deliver annual cost savings of £150,000 and prevent 90% of train waste from going to landfill.

Instead of compacting waste from trains and sending it to landfill, the company is employing a waste contractor to collect the waste on a daily basis and take it away to be recycled at a nearby recycling depot. Most of the 480 tonnes of waste collected from the trains and depot each year is recyclable, including newspapers, magazines, glass and plastic bottles, packaging and paper. Ted Ingle, Safety & Quality Manager at the depot, said: “By putting this scheme in place we’re not only helping to meet our franchise target to recycle 15% of waste across the whole of our

company, we’re also making business cost savings. Another benefit has been the elimination of previous compactor maintenance costs and vermin problems that were associated with compacting waste for landfill.”

As part of the scheme, East Midlands Trains has invested in 30 bespoke wheelie bins, designed and supplied by Sellers Engineering.

Businesses and public sector organisations could benefit by switching from oil, gas and electric heating to renewable biomass, according to Biomass Heating, A Practical Guide , published by the Carbon Trust.

The guide claims that biomass heating offers the greatest cost savings in parts of the UK which are not currently on the gas grid, as using wood or straw can provide cost savings of 2-4 p/kWh (pence per kilowatt hour) relative to use of heating oil. A biomass system generating 1,600MWh of heat (the annual heating requirements of a typical school) could save up to £50,000 per year on fuel costs compared to an existing oil-based heating system and be subject to less price volatility.

MarkWilliamson, Director of Innovations at the Carbon Trust, said: “We’ve become so reliant on oil, gas and electricity that many businesses just aren’t aware of the cost and carbon benefits of turning to biomass for their heating supply. Renewable heating will need to play a key role in meeting the UK’s renewable energy targets and biomass offers the greatest potential to contribute to this. Growing the UK biomass industry can offer other positive impacts, such as creating new green jobs in the UK and making use of certain waste products that would otherwise go to landfill.” Biomass typically offers carbon reductions of around 90% relative to fossil fuel heating systems. Burning

biomass does release carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, but this is offset by the carbon dioxide absorbed in the original growth of the biomass, or captured in the growth of new biomass to replace the materials used.

In its Renewable Energy Strategy consultation, the Government said that if the UK is to meet its 2020 renewable energy targets, renewable sources may need to provide 14% of the UK’s heating requirements (up from the current level of 1%). Biomass is expected to account for a significant proportion of this increase. According to the Carbon Trust, the most cost-effective carbon savings can be achieved with small to medium scale biomass applications (100 kWth-3MWth).

Two organisations that have recently made the switch to biomass are Cwm Taff NHS Trust, which is expecting to save £35,000 per year by replacing an oil-fired boiler with one burning woodchips, and Bell Bros Nurseries Ltd which will be using woodchip to provide 60-70% of the heat needed for its 50,000m2 of glasshouses, cutting annual heating costs by 40-50%. The Carbon Trust provides interest-free loans of up to £200,000 to help small businesses upgrade to more energy efficient equipment, including biomass boilers.

To find out more about biomass heating systems and download the report, visit www.carbontrust.co.uk/ biomass or call 0800 085 2005.