Carbon Trust helps UK business implement more than 10 million tonnes of CO2 savings

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22 August 2007

British businesses and public sector organisations saved between 1.2 and 2 million tonnes of CO2 from April 2006 to March 2007 through working with the Carbon Trust. This brings the total carbon savings achieved by the Carbon Trust since its creation in 2001 to 10.8 million tonnes of CO2, equivalent to more than the combined annual emissions of Birmingham and the City of Edinburgh.

The Carbon Trust was created to accelerate the UK’s transition to a low carbon economy by helping organisations reduce their carbon emissions and developing commercial low carbon technologies. The 2006/07 annual report, published today, outlines the Carbon Trust’s key achievements for the year. Highlights include:

  • Helping customers identify annual CO2 savings of between 4.6 – 5.4 million tonnes, equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of Sheffield and a 38% increase on FY05/06
  • Identifying potential annual cost savings of between £485-543 million
  • Making more than 5000 site visits to businesses and public sector organisations to provide practical advice and hands-on actions to reduce energy use and carbon emissions
  • Successfully completing a NHS carbon management pilot with 10 NHS Trusts, which identified savings of more than 60,000 tonnes of CO2 with associated cost savings of £8 million. The pilot will be rolled out to another 16 NHS Trusts in 2007/08
  • Offering 482 interest-free energy efficiency loans to SMEs worth more than £18 million
  • Supporting the development of low carbon technologies with the launch of a £5 million Biomass heat accelerator, a new £3.5 million Marine Energy accelerator and adding 11 new companies to the Carbon Trust incubator scheme
  • Completing detailed research into Advanced Metering with more than 580 SMEs, which demonstrated potential annual savings of 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 and £300 million
  • Piloting a carbon footprinting methodology and carbon reduction label for products with Walkers Snack Foods, Boots and Innocent Drinks
  • Launching Partnerships for Renewables, which secured government seed funding of £10 million to develop renewable energy projects on public sector land
  • Engaging KPMG to provide independent assurance on the application of the methodology and processes used to prepare performance data included in the Annual Report
  • Making two new venture capital investments in Acal Energy Limited and Whitfield Solar Limited
  • Adding 47 new publications to the Carbon Trust’s online library, holding more than 100 events for businesses across the UK, attracting more than 460,000 unique visitors to www.carbontrust.co.uk and responding to over 35,000 customer calls to the dedicated Carbon Trust advice line on 0800 085 2005.

To obtain a copy of the 2006/07 annual report, please download it at www.carbontrust.co.uk or contact the Carbon Trust press office on 020 7544 3100 or carbontrust@fishburn-hedges.co.uk.

 
 
Footnotes
 

About the Carbon Trust

  • The Carbon Trust is a private company set up by government in response to the threat of climate change, to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy. The Carbon Trust works with UK business and the public sector to create practical business-focused solutions through its external work in five complementary areas: insights, solutions, innovations, enterprises and investments. Together these help to explain, deliver, develop, create and finance low carbon enterprise. 
  • The Carbon Trust is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly Government and Invest NI. 
  •  For more information on the Carbon Trust visit www.carbontrust.co.uk or call the Carbon Trust Advice Line on 0800 085 2005.