‘Save energy, make £6bn a year,’ government urges businesses ahead of new reporting rules

Businesses are being urged by the Government to share in an annual £6 billion bonus from energy efficiency savings as new rules are about to come into force.

This week, the Energy and Clean Growth Minister Kwasi Kwarteng highlighted the billions that can be saved, ahead of the new Streamlined Energy & Carbon Reporting (SECR) regulations.

He said that businesses should speed up their strategies to improve energy efficiency to reduce corporate energy use by 20%, which would deliver the multi-billion pound savings bonus over the next 10 years.

At the same time, the reduction in energy use would reduce carbon emissions, and combat climate change.

The twin focus on energy savings and carbon reduction is at the core of SaveMoneyCutCarbon’s business mission. Our expertise has ensured that UK businesses achieve their statutory commitments and our strategic knowledge will help organisations reach their SECR goals.

Mr Kwarteng said that achieving the Clean Growth Strategy target set in 2017 to reduce corporate energy use by a fifth over the next decade would also cut CO2 by 22 million tonnes, about the same as the annual emissions of 4.6 million cars.

He said:

“Evidence shows that reporting energy use saves businesses on their bills, can boost productivity and attract increasingly green-minded customers by showing they’re committed to fighting climate change.

“These latest requirements are coming into force in this year of climate action and will help take businesses’ energy savings to the next level, cutting emissions and boosting bottom lines as we work towards net zero by 2050.”

The mandatory SECR regulations come into force on April 1st and around 12,000 large or listed UK businesses for the first time will need to report data on their energy use and emissions with their annual financial reports.

Businesses can also give information on their supply chain’s energy use and emissions as part of their submission, under the Scope 3 guidelines.

SECR is part of a raft of measures in the Fourth Carbon Budget where the UK must reduce emissions by 51% over the next seven years. Companies will need to be transparent about emissions, energy use and efficiency initiatives.

SECR widens the responsibilities for larger companies, which include the completion at least every four years of full energy audits under the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS).

The latest government data on ESOS indicates that it has helped generate enough collective energy savings over the past five years to help power 180,000 average homes a year.

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