Green guide for SMEs

Posted on 4 Apr 2011 by The Manufacturer

The Carbon Trust has today issued guidance to help small and medium sized enterprises tap into the £112bn green goods and services market in the UK.

According to research from the government backed organisation, less than a third of UK SMEs expect green opportunities to lead to increased profits and only 22 per cent are investing in green products and services. What’s more, more than half see the green economy as a threat and a similar number believe accessing the market themselves requires access to capital.

Hence, the organisation has created its Green your Business for Growth guide in a bid to change perspectives.
It includes checklists, templates and advice on how to identify green growth opportunities specific to an individual organisation, develop a green growth strategy, reduce environmental impact, and make existing products and services ‘greener’.

Ian Gibson, Director of Delivery Programmes at the Carbon Trust said:

“We want to help Britain’s small firms to seize the opportunities presented by green growth through cutting costs or developing greener products and services.

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“Businesses that do not embrace the green economy risk losing out. As larger firms look to reduce carbon in their supply chains, SMEs that don’t act now could get cut out in favour of greener competitors”

The free guide can be downloaded at www.carbontrust.co.uk/publications.

Last week the Carbon Trust announced that UK pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been awarded its first global climate change certification for is efforts in reducing its carbon footprint in 65 countries.

The Carbon Trust certified that GSK has removed 84,000 tonnes of CO2 – or 4% – from its carbon footprint, saving £3.8M in energy costs. The reduction was achieved alongside a 17% revenue increase per tonne of CO2 over the assessment period – demonstrating that carbon emissions reduction can be achieved in parallel with business growth.

GSK aims to be carbon neutral by 2050.