CRC Tax Changes - Still Strong Focus on Reputation

The government has written to all CRC participants regarding the changes to the CRC, making it a Carbon Tax. This does not affect the performance league table or the reputational drivers/risks the government were keen to implement to motivate organisations to reduce carbon emissions. In fact the performance league tables will be published as planned next October. The government sees these as the key driver to making carbon reduction a boardroom issue for British businesses and public sector organisations.

The CRC Performance League Table will rank the top 3,000 UK organisations by their carbon saving achievements. For the first time, Investors, Customers, Pressure Groups and NGOs will have access to government data on the carbon performance of many of the UK's best known brands and businesses. This will inevitably be the focus of intensive media attention.

Beating the Competition

Do you want to make sure your organisation ranks higher than your competitors? The Carbon Saver Gold Standard has been specifically designed to make the process as straight forward and flexible as possible.

It is unique in the marketplace, allowing organisations to certify just energy emissions with an absolute reduction in emissions. Other schemes mandate the inclusion of transport emissions or require a minimum reduction of 5.2%.

Lowest cost and best value
More flexible approach
Certify just energy use if you wish (not forced to include emissions outside of the CRC)
Robust scheme with high quality, independent third party quality assurance
Reductions can be on an absolute or relative basis
Added value Carbon Saver Action Plan
Low cost Gap Assessment to check if you qualify and save you money on wasted fees

If you would like to know more please contact our certification experts. We can arrange a meeting or webinar to run through the details and answer any of your questions. You can also download an info pack and access some of our WebApps.

Background to Performance League Table

The CRC (Carbon Reduction Commitment) introduces the concept of the CRC performance league table. The league table is published each year and ranks organisations on their CRC performance.

This provides a reputational lever to improve performance. Not many CEOs will be happy explaining to stakeholders why they appear in the bottom of the league table. This is particularly true of brand conscious businesses and those supplying goods and services to the public sector (all government departments are included in the CRC).

It is therefore important for organisations to have a CRC performance league table strategy.

The Early Action Metric

When the government consulted on the CRC one of the key areas of concern was the relative disadvantage of organisations who had taken early actions to reduce their carbon emissions.

To compensate the government introduced the Early Action Metric. During the first 3 years of the CRC the Early Action Metric will affect an organisation's position in the league table. In fact during the first year of the scheme the league table is 100% dependent on the Early Action Metric.

The Early Action Metric is made up of two components which are intended to represent early action taken by organisations to reduce their carbon emissions.