British companies are "nowhere near " meeting UK targets to tackle climate change, a new report assessing UK plc sustainability performance against specific indicators has found.
'
Sustainable Business 2011: Reflecting on Progress’, published today, found
UK firms have slipped back in a number of areas crucial in the fight against
climate change, including
industrial carbon emissions,
energy efficiency, decarbonising electricity generation, and
greenhouse gas emissions from freight
transport. The report, published by
ENDS and
Forum for the Future and drawing mainly on publicly available data, concludes that despite progress in a number of areas, such as carbon measuring and reporting,
green skills,
waste and
water efficiency, UK firms are a long way off meeting Government targets for an 80 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
"More and more companies are seeing that sustainability makes good business sense, but UK plc as a whole is risking its long-term future by not acting fast enough to meet the challenge of climate change," David Bent, Forum for the Future’s deputy director of sustainable business, commented on the findings.
The report highlighted the current gulf between where businesses need to be and where they actually are in terms of meeting emissions targets. According to the Committee on Climate Change, electricity carbon intensity needs to fall by 17 grams of carbon dioxide per year up to 2020, but the report notes that since 2000 the average annual fall has been just 6.7gCO2. It points out that industrial energy intensity has not shown a net improvement since 2007, while
road freight carbon intensity has retreated to 2007 levels.
Claiming to be the first independent "indicator-based assessment" of UK business sustainability, the report tracks UK business progress across 16 indicators covering environmental, social and economic sustainability, and uses a traffic light system to show areas where progress is good (green) and action is most urgent (red).
Research findings
On red are UK carbon emissions from installations covered by the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, which rose 2.4 per cent in 2010. Also faring badly is UK industrial energy intensity, which rose 1.5 per cent in 2010, the "second wobble" in three years, the report notes. The carbon intensity of UK electricity, a key sustainability metric, also rose 1.4 per cent in 2010. The research, meanwhile, found the carbon intensity of road haulage rose two per cent in 2009, a rise the report blames entirely on the recession because the sector was unable to maintain efficiency when the industry contracted and consumers stopped shopping resulting in more journeys carrying fewer or no goods.
The report also places on red business
R&D, which saw a fall of three per cent in 2009. Although no specific figures are given for green R&D, the researchers say, "more innovation is needed to deliver a sustainable future".
Another indicator of business failure is
biodiversity, according to the report. Using data from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on population of woodland and farmland birds, the report notes a sharp fall (8.9 per cent) in bird populations in 2009 and a fall of 34 per cent on 1970 levels.
On a more positive note, the report finds progress continues to be made across a number of important indicators. These include pollution, where serious industrial incidents decreased 17.3 per cent in 2009. On another indicator, the amount of hazardous waste generation and share sent to landfill fell 30.6 per cent in 2009. Business water abstraction and mains losses, meanwhile, fell 2.7 per cent in 2008, the most recent year for which figures are available.
There are clear signs of progress in the low carbon goods and services sector too. The report points to research by KMatrix that shows green industries achieved sales of £122.2 billion in 2010-11, up 4.7 per cent on 2009-10.
In a sign that UK businesses are taking their responsibility to the environment more seriously, the research points to a 13.6 per cent uptake in environmental management standards in 2009, and a jump of almost 10 per cent in 2010 in the number of sustainability reports issued by UK companies. Sustainability-linked educational and professional qualifications are also on the rise, increasing 4.4 per cent in 2010.
Economic and social issues
But despite progress on the green economy, on wider economic and social issues, such as pay inequality and companies’ social performance in areas such as human rights and labour and supply chain standards, the research shows a backward trend over the last year.
Nick Rowcliffe, editor-in-chief at ENDS commented: "Sustainability is immensely broad and complex […] We set out to try an identify trends in sustainability performance and particularly in different aspects of sustainability performance. Environmental performance, in terms of knowledge, skills and staff is improving significantly, which is a good sign for the future, but carbon performance isn’t and, what I find quite interesting, is that wider sustainability performance – pay and inequality in society –is not [either]. These have only started coming into perspective since the financial crash and recession, but businesses have to manage environment in the context of broader sustainability. Environment alone is no longer enough."
ENDS and Forum for the Future said they aim to publish Sustainable Business annually and improve on this year’s report.
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