Energy efficiency costs put firms off

Although most business owners want their businesses to be greener, many are deterred from implementing changes because of costs, it has been claimed.

According to a report by Abbey and Alliance & Leicester, 16% of businesses are putting less focus on environmental issues this year for financial reasons. Nearly 10% said they could not make changes due to restrictions on their premises while 4% said they were not sure what changes could even be made.

However, a quarter of firms polled said they were giving environmental concerns much more attention this year despite economic pressures.

In total, 98% of small business owners said they had taken some measures to improve their environmental impact, up from 80% in 2008. These businesses spent a total of £1.5bn, averaging out to £1,000 per company.

Paula Ickinger, head of business banking marketing at Abbey and Alliance & Leicester said:

“There are one and a half million small businesses in the UK, so it is very encouraging to find that so many of them have taken steps to reduce the environmental impact of their operations, in some cases at great expense. While some of these changes are relatively minor, the cumulative impact will have been huge.

“It is particularly interesting that so many companies have actually made environmental considerations a higher priority since the economic downturn. Many green initiatives incur a significant up front cost, which can be off-putting but in the longer term they can help to reduce overheads as well as carbon emissions.”

The Carbon Trust recently announced that it was providing interest free loans for small companies wishing to invest in more energy efficient equipment.

Backed by TV dragon Theo Paphitis, the scheme offers unsecured, interest free loans that can be used to replace equipment costing between £3,000 and £400,000 repayable over a period of up to four years.

© Crimson Business Ltd. 2009