Carbon Reduction Con or Necessity for SMEs?

Last week I saw a TV documentary which seriously questioned  the whole climate change consensus.  It made me wonder whether businesses large and small are being conned into believing they must reduce their carbon emissions.

Such were the strength of the arguments presented they seemed to puncture entirely those demanding drastic action that could hurt business, the economy and most disturbingly the future of developing nations. 

In essence the documentary posited that increased CO2 emissions naturally follow the earth’s millennia-old cycles of heating and cooling and that the man-made contribution to green house gases is negligible.

The programme did, however, fail to convince on a few levels.  There was no counterposing view or critique of the arguments presented and no recognition of the fact that man’s abuse of the environment is having a hugely deleterious effect in other ways.  It was a missed opportunity, but has I hope spurred people to look more closely at the whole debate.

I need to do more research in this area myself, but as you know have previously found practical advice for small businesses lacking.  It’s therefore good to see that BT has today launched a micro site that includes a carbon calculator to allow SMEs to calculate their annual usage of CO2, together with some useful practical advice and tips on how to reduce emissions.

I leave it to you to make up your own mind whether this is an essential tool to help your business play its part in saving the planet, or simply a band-wagon jumping gimmick.

Alex is the founder and editor of SmallBizPod, the UK's first podcast dedicated to small business, start-ups and entrepreneurship. Alex writes about topical small business issues, entrepreneurs and anything else that catches his eye here on the small business blog. http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk