Subject: Energy saving and environmental responsibilities of businesses.

Statement: We believe that businesses, as profiteering organisations, should do more to save energy and help the environment.

In today's environmentally-aware society, individuals are encouraged to save energy, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Businesses are also placed under tight restrictions on their emissions. However, we believe that more should be done to reduce the energy used by businesses.

This manifesto aims to:

1. Identify areas where businesses can improve energy savings
2. Suggest possible improvements in these areas

We believe businesses can improve energy saving practices in the following areas:

• Lighting
• Paper usage
• Vehicles
• Waste disposal
• Financial responsibility
  

Lighting

The general public are told that switching off a light makes a difference. Just one light. Yet no laws have been passed to prevent businesses such as department stores, or lighting shops from keeping all of their displays lit constantly. For example, Bhs keep their entire ceiling, wall and lamp display lit throughout the day, as do Homebase and Debenhams. This means that some two hundred lights in one shop alone are kept on through the day, every single day.

Surely it would make more of a difference to have these switched off, than have one person turn off one light at home. What is more, some businesses leave their entire shop lit up at night. There should be stricter laws on when these display lights can be switched on, and that all lights must be turned off after the staff have finished working.

According to http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file43837.pdf both domestic life and industrial life use 33% of Britain's electricity (figures based on 2006). For years, we have been taught that at home, we must switch off any lights or appliances that do not need to be on. It is only recently, however, that businesses have been looked at for how much energy they use. If the new Climate Change Bill is passed this Tuesday, soon the public will be able to see for themselves which businesses are bad for the environment.


Paper Usage

Walk into the office of any business and you will almost immediately spot letterheads, envelopes, copier paper, post-it notes and writing pads. All different variations of paper, some of which may be necessary, others of which may not. Now, notice the overflowing wastepaper baskets, the huge shredders crammed with redundant documents and the packed recycling boxes and ask yourself whether this is sufficient. Recycling paper is good but surely reducing the amount of paper you use to begin with is even better, right?

However, in a world where digital technology is ripe, we are now finally beginning to recognise a slight change. This is particularly apparent in banks. The introduction of both 'green' accounts and internet banking means that you can actually now opt out of receiving monthly statements, in the paper form and instead look up your statement online, as and when you need. This is further supported by the decision to only print and send any paper statement on a quarterly basis, as opposed to the previous monthly ones.

Some businesses now even insert captions at the bottom of their emails asking the recipient to think about waste disposal before printing the contents. They see it as their corporate responsibility.

So, if some businesses can make such valuable changes, why can't they all?


Vehicles

Currently, it is estimated that there are approximately 600 million passenger cars in the world. The average car owner produces 27 kilos of carbon by driving just in one day. That's 9855 kilos per car owner, per year. Much of this is commercial travel, and unnecessary travel. However, top level management in big companies also fly by private jet. Private jets are among the worst for producing carbon emissions. The Gulfstream 400, for example, produces over 10,000 lbs of carbon per hour of flying.

For this particular aircraft, it costs $12000 per hour to fly. But for just $43 per hour, the companies using this aircraft could offset their carbon footprint to become carbon neutral. This must be taken into consideration when Google, the major Internet search engine made profits of $1.2 billion in the three months between October and December in 2007.

It requires such a small amount of money that large companies have to take out of their huge profits to make all of their travel requirements carbon neutral.


Rubbish


The UK produces more than 434 tonnes of waste per year: the businesses are the producers of most of that waste. In among this waste are the roughly 17 and a half billion plastic bags that supermarkets give away each year. In an ideal situation, a large amount of this rubbish could be recycled or put to better use. Instead - and despite government intervention - businesses in the UK still throw away unsustainable amounts of useful material.

The goal that must be reached is that of a sustainable corporate system in the UK, where the majority of rubbish produced is recycled. If this is done, the nation will be much closer to being both green and more efficient.



Financial Responsibility

Businesses that operate for profit, do so in order to generate money from their operations. Their primary goal is to be profitable. Profit from business does not pay salaries, it is not spent on overheads, it is the money that remains after all expenditures are accounted for. This money is surplus to the daily needs of the business. They often use it to pay bonuses, or to reinvest in the business. This money should be used to reinvest in the environment.

Billions of pounds are generated every year in profit, sitting in banks, earning interest. If businesses put some of this money back into the funding and development of clean, renewable energy sources, climate change emission targets will be more easily achievable. It cannot be left to individuals to personally sacrifice their much needed money to save the environment. Businesses must adopt a conscience and give some of their excess funds to a greater cause.



Changes

Things are changing, but is it enough to leave things until 2012? We must ask ourselves, both as individuals at home and in the work place, what we can change to make a difference and encourage those higher up to implement these ideas. In Parliament on Tuesday 4th November, the Climate Change Bill is being discussed. This will mean larger changes for businesses who are currently not doing as much as they could be to reduce their carbon emissions. The bill will commit the UK to cutting greenhouse gases by 80% by 2050. It will also require all companies to publicly reveal their greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. This should ensure that businesses go green, as many businesses in today's society are supported for being environmentally friendly.