The News Green News Only a third of large firms are ready for the government's Carbon Reduction programme says SAP
26 November 2009
Organisations are unprepared and ill-equipped for the forthcoming Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) legislation, shows research commissioned by enterprise software firm SAP.
A survey of 400 large businesses in the UK covered by the CRC has found that organisations are not ready for the legislation that comes into force next April. The research found that only one third of UK organisations are fully prepared for the CRC.
A worrying 20% have not even started planning for the CRC or have no idea what measures they need to take.
While a 77% majority of UK enterprises perceive the CRC to be an opportunity to improve their carbon footprint, under half have deployed the necessary IT systems to enable this improvement. Of those that do have a system in place to track their progress and manage their carbon footprint, a third are relying on cumbersome Excel spreadsheets and a further 12% have an internally developed system lacking ideal functionality, said SAP.
A clear lack of CRC "ownership" was also found, with a large discrepancy between businesses as to who is responsible for managing CRC compliance. This suggests, said SAP, that whilst there was awareness of the upcoming legislation, many firms have a great deal of preparation outstanding.
Simon Godfrey, sustainability champion at SAP United Kingdom & Ireland, said, “Clear governance and ownership for the CRC will be essential to reducing the administrative burden of what will become an annual requirement. At the same time, if organisations want to perform well in the CRC league tables, they need a comprehensive carbon management system in place to be able to easily collect, gather and analyse data relating to their carbon emissions."
Companies face reputational and financial risk in CRC league tables if they do not put systems in place to reduce emissions. The CRC will mainly affect large private and public sector organisations. At the end of 2011, the government will start to publish an annual league table showing the best and worst CRC performers. The worst performers will be forced by the government rules to reduce their emissions.
