Business: Carbon Trust Standard bids to restore trust in carbon cuts

Tackling the perception that green initiatives from businesses are more focussed on smoke and mirrors than emissions cuts, the Carbon Trust has launched its Carbon Reduction Award Scheme. For companies to get recognition, they need to measure and reduce their carbon footprint year-on-year. Only cuts made directly will count, rooting out companies relying heavily on offsetting to cut their emissions.

Twelve organisations have already been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard, including B&Q, Morrisons, Trinity Mirror and the Crown Prosecution Service. These organisations have reduced their carbon emissions by an average of 8.4 per cent over the last three years, which represents a total reduction of 250,000 tonnes of CO2. The Carbon Trust says it's currently working with thousands of businesses to help them get their carbon cutting efforts recognised.

The Carbon Trust Standard should go some way towards restoring consumers' trust in business' green claims. "Our research shows that not only do consumers currently mistrust business' climate change claims, but that business thinks existing carbon award schemes are confusing and lack credibility," says Tom Delay, Chief Executive of the Carbon Trust.

Offsetting is viewed with particular suspicion: only one in ten consumers in a recent Carbon Trust survey believe they are a credible way to cut emissions.

While the scheme does eliminate carbon cuts made from offsetting, it still doesn't tackle the thorny issue of carbon cuts in the supply chain. That's likely to be a much longer process, and is currently being tackled by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). The CDP's first supply chain results were published in May and for many suppliers it was the first time they had ever addressed climate change issues.

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