Help in low carbon initiatives

By Trash Talk on May 14, 08 09:00 AM in

Help is at hand if you are in business and want aid in understanding your carbon footprint and the impact climate change will have on your business.

I recently attended a conference with some colleagues from Premier Waste Management where we were able to talk the carbon agenda with people who know what is happening.

The majority of waste strategy is led by what I would call the carbon agenda:

1. Councils and businesses are targeted to remove biodegradable waste before it hits landfill because once there it produces methane – a powerful greenhouse gas.

2. Home composting or commercial composting of clippings from gardens and parks removes huge amounts of biodegradable waste from landfill and produces compost which removes the need to dig up peat.

3. Councils and businesses are targeted to increase recycling and reduce waste - recycling reduces the energy needed to make products.

These activities reduce our overall carbon footprint and help to reduce our climate change impact.

Industry and commerce has a huge climate change impact and climate change itself will have a massive impact on business. Consider the situation in the July 2007 floods in the UK, stopped two inches short of swamping a power station that supplied 500,000 homes and businesses.

Could your business cope if the power failed?
What if the water supply failed or was contaminated?
What is your businesses carbon impact?
How is climate change going to affect what you do?

It was to help business people seek the answers to these and similar questions that the Low Carbon Innovation Network was formed.

The Low Carbon Innovation Network brings together over five thousand executives involved in reducing carbon emissions for their organisations, to share best practice and innovation in the drive to tackle climate change. This free-to-join Network provides members with opportunities to learn from one another and share their own experience for the benefit of all.

All members of the Network receive a weekly Bulletin of case studies and interviews to capture and promote best practice. The online Forum allows members to directly interact with one another to discuss the challenges, share experience and explore collaboration and technology transfer opportunities.

A national programme of best practice Exchange events are staged across the UK. These highly acclaimed networking and educational events provide an effective way for organisations, from both the private and public sectors, to progress their own plans for carbon reduction initiatives.

The Low Carbon Board Report provides a monthly analysis on key issues facing directors as they adapt their companies for the emerging low carbon economy.

The Automotive Low Carbon Innovation Forum (ALCIF) is a special interest group for the automotive industry to help facilitate the speed in which low carbon innovations can be brought to market.

You will find the Low Carbon Innovation Network at www.carbon-innovation.com