News 

Carbon Trust loan helps 'Brideshead' house go green

A £60,000 interest-free loan from the Carbon Trust has helped the owner of Castle Howard, the stately home featured in the television adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, cut his fuel bill in half by going green. The Hon Simon Howard spent £160,000 on fitting an underwater ground-source heat recovery system. As a result, he has halved Castle Howard's annual fuel bill from £40,000 to £20,000. The system works by converting heat stored in the ground and under the castle's three-acre lake into power.

Read the Telegraph article, or find out more about our interest-free Energy Efficiency Loans - 31/08/10

We'll all have to pay for carbon say business finance heads

Most finance heads at the UK’s largest companies anticipate that all businesses will be required to measure their carbon footprint (72%) and pay a price for the carbon they emit (76%), according to research announced today by the Carbon Trust Standard Company. The survey explored the views of 200 UK finance heads on the switchover to the low carbon economy.  Read the survey press release - 18/08/10

The Carbon Trust and the move to more paid for services

The Carbon Trust has a duty to ensure that our public funding delivers the greatest impact in terms of our mission to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy.  That means, wherever possible, leveraging in private sector investment and funding to enable our public funding to go further and deliver the greatest carbon savings both now and in the future. We recognise that we are now in a time of austerity and that public funding will continue to be constrained for the foreseeable future.  As a result, all parts of our business are being asked, over the coming year, to reduce costs in support of our ongoing commitment to deliver value for money. Read the paid for services press release - 05/08/10

Center Parcs holiday villages achieve recognition for carbon reduction

Center Parcs has been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard after taking genuine action on climate change by measuring, managing and reducing carbon emissions across its UK operations, including a head office and four large holiday villages in Nottinghamshire, Suffolk, Wiltshire and Cumbria. The company joins a group of more than 345 organisations in the UK, including The National Archives and the Co-operative Group, that have worked with the Carbon Trust Standard to calculate their carbon footprint, quantify their exposure to risk, and measure and benchmark progress of their carbon management strategies. Read the Center Parcs’ press release - 03/08/10

Green Investment Bank Commission

29/06/10
Commenting on the report by the Green Investment Bank Commission launched this morning, Tom Delay, Chief Executive of the Carbon Trust, said: 

“On the same day the Wigley report was published, the Carbon Trust has announced that seven major energy companies are investing millions into our offshore wind technology accelerator to cut the cost of offshore wind by 10%.

"We are pleased to see the Wigley report has incorporated our ideas to increase private sector investment and has flagged our low carbon innovation and wider work with business as mission critical to delivering a low carbon economy.

"Our offshore wind and other Carbon Trust work successfully leverages eight times as much private sector investment as we receive in public funding, resulting in hundreds of millions of pounds for the low carbon economy. We will be working closely with the Coalition Government over the coming months as they carefully consider the options around a new Green Investment Bank."

30/06/10
Further comments from the Commission Head Bob Wigley acknowledged the input of the Carbon Trust to the report and reinforced its critical importance going forward:

"Some of the best ideas in this report come from the Carbon Trust, and I hope they could be at the heart of a green investment bank"

The Carbon Trust looks forward to continuing to deliver towards helping the UK reach its carbon reduction targets and continues to grow its work in accelerating the move to a low carbon economy.   Crucially the Carbon Trust's effectiveness increases as it leverages in further private sector investment and this is a core success factor for its activities.  The Wigley Report is an independent contribution to an ongoing debate about the challenges we face in financing a sustainable future for the UK, a debate which will develop over the coming months.  The Carbon Trust welcomes  contributions to how the UK business community can best invest in a low carbon future and will continue to make the case for cost effective solutions to the biggest environmental challenge we face - tackling climate change.