Carbon Reduction Commitment performance rankings show 60 per cent of firms installed smart meters or gained Carbon Trust accreditation
More than 60 per cent of organisations reporting under the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) have installed smart meters or gained good energy management accreditation, according to the government's new energy efficiency league table.
The Environment Agency today published its first Energy Efficiency Performance League Table ranking 2,000 CRC organisations according to how they manage their energy use, including major supermarkets, retailers, restaurant chains, government departments, hospitals and councils.
Twenty-two organisations ranked joint first, with a weighted score of 202.95. They included Manchester United Limited, CenterParcs, the Department of Energy and Climate Change, and energy regulator Ofgem.
Interestingly, British American Tobacco also ranked joint first, showing that even companies unable to advertise their success to consumers are taking steps to boost energy security and cut carbon emissions.
More than 800 organisations ranked in the lowest possible position, with a weighted score of 402. They included the storage arm of Centrica, Virgin Atlantic, Peugeot, and the Zoological Society of London and Zurich Financial Services, which by virtue of alphabetical order were consigned to the last places in the list.
A number of firms have challenged the metrics used by the Environment Agency to place organisations in the league table with a spokesman for Zurich arguing that it would be more meaningful for firms to be ranked based on their carbon emissions.
The scheme requires large organisations that use more than 6,000MWh electricity per year to measure and report carbon emissions. They gain credits for installing smart meters and complying with Carbon Trust - or an equivalent accreditation scheme - standards of energy management.
The league table does not disclose those organisations that failed compliance with the legislation altogether, and now face fines starting from £45,000.
The rankings were initially designed to help government recycle the revenues raised through the CRC, but this element was controversially removed in last year's comprehensive spending review, meaning the government now keeps the revenues raised.
However, the Department of Energy and Climate Change maintains that charging firms based on their energy use through the CRC will provide a financial driver for energy efficiency improvements, while league tables will provide a reputational incentive for companies to try to perform well.
Environment Agency director of environment and business Ed Mitchell said he is encouraged to see that six out of 10 organisations have taken steps to improve their energy management this year.
"The UK needs its high street shops, major businesses, councils, government departments and other big energy users to use less electricity to help meet tough carbon reduction targets," he said.
However, James Ramsay, head of CRC at consultancy Carbon Clear, said it was "really quite extraordinary" that 40 per cent of firms were failing to take sufficient action on reducing carbon emissions, leaving over 800 firms in joint bottom place in the league table.
"The fact that over 40 per cent - including many big brand names - failed to score a single point is a clear indicator that they are not even monitoring their energy data. It shows that there is huge room for improvement," he added.
Networking giant Cisco warned that limitations in the legislation may mean the position of some companies is misleading.
Ian Foddering, chief technology officer at Cisco UKI, said the rules might mean some organisations that invest in more and better technology to ensure long-term carbon reduction could be penalised because they have increased their use of electricity or power consumption in the short term.
"Every organisation's journey towards carbon reduction will be different; however, the UK's legislation at the moment addresses just one element of a company's carbon impact," he said.
"There is good understanding among organisations for how technology can reduce the UK's total carbon output, but those organisations that make exemplary organisational changes, replacing business travel with intelligent collaborative technology, for example, can actually find themselves on the wrong side of today's legislation.
"This year, government will need to look more holistically at organisations' longer term environmental impact in order to get a clearer picture of our collective progress against the UK's 2020 targets."
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