Two-thirds of UK executives expect significant energy costs savings from their involvement in the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, whilst half expect a boost to their brand image translating into extra sales, according to a recent survey by Verdantix.
The survey suggests that UK business leaders strongly support the scheme, despite the burdens of compliance, monitoring and cash flow. Indeed, 59% believe that becoming a top CRC league table performer will attract greater investment from green-conscious investors.
It is also clear that companies will need to employ specialist IT systems to help them manage and report on their energy and other sustainability data, to ensure that such information is accurate and meaningful.
These are some of the key figures to come out of the responses to the survey:
• 83% will have multi-year carbon reduction targets signed off by the CEO.
• 68% will have achieved the Carbon Trust Standard to score highly for the CRC early action metric.
• 2% consider themselves unprepared for the CRC Scheme.
• 90% see accurate carbon forecasting as important to their success.
• 80% have a ring-fenced CRC budget:
• 73% have a smart meter budget
• 65% have budgeted for April 2011’s CRC credit purchases
• 63% have a energy efficiency capex budget
• 54% have a carbon management software budget
• 78% will have launched an IT project to consolidate energy/carbon data
• 59% think that the CRC compliance reports should be signed off by the CEO or CFO.
• Only 14% are looking to follow a compliance-based strategy, as opposed to being an industry leader of carbon emissions (32%) or following a pragmatic cost/benefit approach (51%).