Sustainable office design 'can save firms £400m per annum'

Office design news from Morgan Lovell

Published on 13-05-2011

Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the UK could save up to £400 million a year through the uptake of green measures, it has been claimed.

According to the Carbon Trust Standard, the combined savings made by SMEs over 12 months would total this amount if they all embraced a new tool from the organisation - the Carbon Trust Standard SME online certification.

Harry Morrison, general manager of the company, said: "What you can measure, you can reduce, so we believe there's a major opportunity for every business to cut costs and carbon by taking action and achieving certification."

Overall, SMEs could see savings of £2,000 a year each, as well as cutting their emissions by 13 tonnes of carbon per firm per annum - a total of 2.5 million tonnes for all SMEs in the UK.

Gordon Miller, sustainability and communications director of Sustain Worldwide, recently argued that it is imperative the coalition government's new Green Deal is a success when it is introduced next year.

Posted by Ian Johnson