Hugh Jones, a project director at the Carbon Trust says that companies ‘going green’ and becoming more environmentally friendly have ‘enlightened self-interest.’ Clare Dight of The Times writes ‘those companies that have reduced their carbon footprint, making significant cost savings in the process, are now seeing a brand boost.’ It would seem that because going green is hip at the moment, any company promoting the fact they are ‘green’ are getting a lot of positive press. In turn their products are being viewed more favourably than their competitors. Is this being cynical or do companies really care? We must not forget consumer power. At this stage people may not be actively discriminating between carbon neutral products and those that aren’t but it can’t be far off.
The Carbon Trust calculated that the carbon cost of a packet of Walkers crisps is 75grams. Consequently the company has been reducing its energy and water use since 2000. By reducing their carbon footprint the company has also saved money. We’ve already seen how we can reduce our own power bills so imagine the saving on an industrial scale!
More about this later.
