Scramble to cut emissions to avoid shaming

The Times
December 1, 2008

Peter Stiff

Some of Britain's biggest companies are scrambling to try to reduce their carbon emissions before being named and shamed by the Government and being hit with a hefty bill.
Stagecoach, the FTSE 100 transport group, Gala Coral, the private equity-owned gaming company, and Matalan, the retailer, have mandated Spice, the FTSE 250 utility services group, to monitor and reduce their emissions after the Government's latest green guidelines were signed into law last week.
From 2010, companies that spend about £500,000 or more a year on electricity will be required to pay for the amount of carbon they emit under the Carbon Reduction Commitment, part of the Climate Change Act. Companies' performance will be published in a league table, which will determine how much of the payment - made at the start of each year - is given back.
A company's rank will be determined by its emissions performance, the actions that it has taken to control emissions and how its emissions have changed in relation to its turnover. The move could lead to several companies renegotiating their energy contracts and asking for outside help to procure cleaner energy on their behalf.
Simon Rigby, chief executive of Spice, said the group's Inenco division had received a “flood of enquiries” as companies began to realise the potential costs and reputational risk of not reducing their emissions.