London, 27th January 2010: Rising energy prices and higher taxes are the biggest worries facing British businesses in 2010 after the state of the economy, according to new research released today by the Carbon Trust.
61% of respondents in the survey of 700 businesses said they are worried about the unstable economy while around half (49%) said they worry about energy price hikes. The same number admitted to worrying about rises in tax.
Concerns about energy prices are highest in industries with high energy use such as construction (55%), manufacturing (53%) and hospitality (52%).
Far fewer businesses are worried about a possible change in government (20%) or complying with environmental legislation (13%).
The extent of business worries over energy prices was revealed as the Carbon Trust, kicked off a drive to persuade British companies to stop wasting over £3bn of energy every year. Over 40% of the businesses interviewed said that one of their New Year resolutions is to reduce the amount of energy their business uses.
The “Best Advice” campaign was launched by Ian Cheshire, Group CEO of Kingfisher, the parent company of B&Q. It calls on businesses to take the first step to cutting their energy wastage through a free Carbon Survey from the Carbon Trust.
The Carbon Survey, available free of charge to all businesses that spend between £50,000 and £3million on energy each year, provides the services of an energy expert on site and a tailored energy-saving action plan. It typically identifies possible savings on energy costs of between 20% and 30%.
Businesses that have already taken advantage of the service and cut their energy bills as a result include organic food supplier Abel & Cole, The Lowry Hotel in Manchester and landscaping product manufacturer Marshalls.
Ian Cheshire said:
“It is simply good business sense to be smarter about the way we use energy. It cuts costs, makes us more efficient and improves our reputation with customers. I would encourage any business that has yet to embark on the energy efficiency journey to pick up the phone and book in a Carbon Trust survey. It is likely to be the best piece of free advice a business will get this year.”
B&Q has significantly cut its energy costs and made a carbon saving of 10,000 tonnes of CO2 by working with the Carbon Trust since 2008. The company has engaged staff to save energy and improved heating and lighting, as well as through improvements to buildings.
The Carbon Trust’s Best Advice survey also asked business people who had given them the best piece of business advice they ever received and which famous business person they would turn to for advice given the chance.
Only 16% of respondents said their bank manager or accountant had given them the best business advice. Far more said it had been a colleague (38%), a good friend (36%) or their boss (32%).
Virgin tycoon, Richard Branson, was the most popular choice of business mentor with almost one third (31%) of respondents wanting to turn to him for advice. The Dragon’s Den dragons were the second most in-demand (18%) with Alan Sugar in third place (12%). X Factor mogul, Simon Cowell, was picked by only three per cent of those interviewed.
All businesses spending £50,000 or more on their energy consumption are being urged to visit www.carbontrust.co.uk/bestadvice, or dial 0800 085 2005 for more information and to register for their free Carbon Survey.
Businesses spending less than £50,000 can access free, expert advice via a new Cut Carbon, Cut Costs online tutorial at www.carbontrust.co.uk/onlinetraining. It gives easy-to-follow video advice on how to cut energy bills and shows users how to calculate potential savings and develop a plan for achieving them.
Since 2006, the Carbon Trust has delivered over £180m in energy savings to British businesses through its Carbon Surveys.
The Carbon Trust estimates that British businesses currently spending between £50,000 and £3m on their annual energy bills, could reduce their collective energy spend by more than £3bn by implementing energy saving actions of the type specified in Carbon Trust surveys.
About the research
- The research was conducted by Opinion Matters in January 2010. Opinions from 700 business decision makers in London, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle, Birmingham, Bristol, East Anglia, Brighton & Hove and Liverpool were sourced via an internet poll. All the businesses polled spent £50k to £3m per annum on energy.
- Rising energy prices were the joint second concern for 49% of the 700 businesses polled, behind the state of the economy.
- Rising energy prices were the biggest concern for majority (53%) of those in the hospitality/leisure industry after the state of the economy among the manufacturing/engineering, property/construction and retail/wholesale sectors.
- Significantly, 1 in 7 of those polled said no one was responsible for their energy management practices. In the retail/wholesale sector this rose to 1 in 4 of respondents. In Manchester 1 in 3 and in Birmingham 1 in 4 said this was the case.
- The larger the company, the greater the perceived power of being seen to be green. A third of companies with 50+ staff said improving their green credentials was a top three resolution for 2010.
About the Carbon Trust
The Carbon Trust is an independent company set up in 2001 by the Government in response to the threat of climate change, to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy. We work with organisations to reduce carbon emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies.
We cut carbon emissions by giving private business and the public sector expert advice, finance and accreditation to help them reduce their carbon footprint and to stimulate demand for low carbon products and services.
Since 2001 we’ve helped UK businesses save more than 23m tonnes of CO2, and more than £1.4bn. We aim to help our customers, across the private and public sectors, to cut a further 17m tonnes of CO2 in the next three years.
In 2008 alone, the Carbon Trust supported half a million UK businesses, saving companies up to £227m from their annual energy bills and cutting up to 2m tonnes of carbon dioxide from their annual emissions.
We cut future carbon emissions by developing new technologies via project funding and management, investment and collaboration. We also identify market failures and provide practical ways to overcome them.
We are helping the UK become a global hub for low carbon innovation. Our work on commercialising new technologies is expected to save more than 24m tonnes of carbon a year by 2050.
The Carbon Trust is undertaking world-leading projects in the offshore wind, marine energy, biomass, CHP, algae and advanced solar power sectors.
For more information please contact:
James Coyle / Greg Morrison at Brands2Life on: 0207 592 1200 / carbontrust@brands2life.com