10 million tonnes of CO2 saved since 2001, Carbon Trust claims

Here’s what the Carbon Trust claims – but is it enough to have an impact?

If, as it says, it has helped save between 1.2 and 2 million tonnes of carbon in the last year, that’s not a big share of its total 10.8 million over six years, is it? It doesn’t give the impression there is a constant rise in the amount of carbon saved.

Still – some is better than none. It’s not exactly the easiest of jobs to do – especially given the lack of awareness of the sustainability industry.

And it’s much better to see it happening than not at all:

“British businesses and public sector organisations saved between 1.2 and 2 million tonnes of CO2 from April 2006 to March 2007 through working with the Carbon Trust. This brings the total carbon savings achieved by the Carbon Trust since its creation in 2001 to 10.8 million tonnes of CO2, equivalent to more than the combined annual emissions of Birmingham and the City of Edinburgh.

The Carbon Trust was created to accelerate the UK’s transition to a low carbon economy by helping organisations reduce their carbon emissions and developing commercial low carbon technologies. The 2006/07 annual report, published today, outlines the Carbon Trust’s key achievements for the year. Highlights include:

• Helping customers identify annual CO2 savings of between 4.6 – 5.4 million tonnes, equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of Sheffield and a 38 per cent increase on FY05/06
• Identifying potential annual cost savings of between £485-543 million
• Making more than 5000 site visits to businesses and public sector organisations to provide practical advice and hands-on actions to reduce energy use and carbon emissions
• Successfully completing a NHS carbon management pilot with 10 NHS Trusts, which identified savings of more than 60,000 tonnes of CO2 with associated cost savings of £8 million. The pilot will be rolled out to another 16 NHS Trusts in 2007/08
• Offering 482 interest-free energy efficiency loans to SMEs worth more than £18 million
• Supporting the development of low carbon technologies with the launch of a £5 million Biomass heat accelerator, a new £3.5 million Marine Energy accelerator and adding 11 new companies to the Carbon

The Trust incubator scheme included:

• Completing detailed research into Advanced Metering with more than 580 SMEs, which demonstrated potential annual savings of 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 and £300 million
• Piloting a carbon footprinting methodology and carbon reduction label for products with Walkers Snack Foods, Boots and Innocent Drinks
• Launching Partnerships for Renewables, which secured government seed funding of £10 million to develop renewable energy projects on public sector land
• Engaging KPMG to provide independent assurance on the application of the methodology and processes used to prepare performance data included in the Annual Report
• Making two new venture capital investments in Acal Energy Limited and Whitfield Solar Limited”