Businesses & Carbon Emissions: What Is Being Done?

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Businesses & Carbon Emissions: What Is Being Done?

The weather never fails to astonish us in the United Kingdom. The reporters on the daily forecasts are forever telling us that new records have been broken in terms of rainfall, snowfall, or indeed any other type of precipitation too. The weather patterns are said to be shifting around the globe, with more severe storms, flooding and temperature variations occurring in many countries. The National Wildlife Federation are saying that this “intensification of weather and climate extremes will be the most visible impact of global warming in our everyday lives.”[1]

That leaves it to individuals and businesses to make changes that can go some way to reducing the impact of climate change. A company generally makes far more in the way of emissions than any residential address, so this is an area that the government have a keen interest in. So what is truly being done to reduce carbon emissions?


Carbon credits

GEC, a London based commodities consultancy, says: “a carbon credit is a license to emit a tonne of CO2 or an amount of another greenhouse gas which causes the same adverse effect on the ozone layer.” [2] What is interesting is that companies who lead environmental projects to reduce emissions can earn these credits for each tonne of CO2 avoided; they are then able to sell them to other businesses thereby funding their project, and the other company then has the right to offset their emissions. There are many types of carbon credits, but it is a system that has both environmental and monetary value.


Microgeneration technologies

If you look at the E.ON website, you will come across the phrase ‘microgeneration technologies’, which basically exists to reduce energy consumption and reliance on fossil fuels [3]. For businesses, this is a way to introduce renewable energy solutions into existing infrastructure, helping them to meet low carbon targets or obligations. Each business can get in contact with their energy supplier to find a solution that would suit them, but just one of the methods is by having a heat pump installed. There are two types, ground source and air source – each utilises naturally occurring heat from the environment and converts it into heating and hot water.


Other ways to change

Of course, there are some smaller changes being done within businesses that can help to reduce carbon emissions, whilst cutting costs. This includes things like turning off the lights, and not relying on air conditioning and heating units when not necessary. There is still a way to go, something that technology is surely helping with, but these steps are encouraging all the same.
