Firms face fines as carbon emissions deadline nears

Published on Wednesday 18 August 2010 16:31

HUNDREDS of blue chip firms face heavy fines for failing to comply with new carbon emission regulations.

With a little over one month to go before the registration deadline, the Energy Agency estimates that of about 4,000 large businesses and other commercial organisations that qualify, only 1,229 have registered under the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) energy efficiency scheme.

Failure to register by 30 September will land a company with an initial fine of 5,000 plus a further 500 per day up to a maximum of 45,000 until it complies.

The Agency cites a further grouping of 15,000 lower-energy users that have to make an "information disclosure" under the scheme, launched last April with a six-month bedding-in period towards the deadline.

Tony Fisher, managing director of Greenocity, a consultancy specialising in IT-related commercial energy use, said general business knowledge of the CRC scheme is low.

Yet large firms ignoring the scheme are the heaviest users of energy, especially where it involves the top three sources of daily consumption: air conditioning, lighting and power consumed by electronic equipment.

Fisher said: "This lack of IT awareness is shocking. Organisations will miss vital opportunities to reduce their energy bills and CO2 emissions."

A Gartner survey shows that green issues during the recession represented a "shock wave" for industry and business in general when it came to implementation.

Rakesh Kumar, a research vice-president, said firms had diverted their attention away from green IT projects to save money and last year had been a "gap year" for such initiatives.

Firms should now avoid mixing green technology and cost-cutting aims, but instead realise the wider cost benefits to their organisation.

The analyst added that initiatives covering carbon reporting and offsetting, videoconferencing and green procurement had to become key pillars of commercial IT strategy covering the next decade.

A Cisco-sponsored survey a year ago warned that IT managers were deeply concerned over their inability to deliver on carbon-neutral targets.

Cisco's UK & Ireland networking technology specialist Neil Crockett said that where green IT projects were being undertaken they tended to focus on established technologies.

More cutting-edge projects, such as home-working, building energy management and server virtualisation, remained rare.