by Jbs110709 d3 — November 13, 2009—U.K. industry leaders on November 2 backed a drive to slash the carbon emissions and energy costs of manufacturers by up to a third, and substantially shrink the carbon footprints of finished products. More than a quarter of the U.K.’s carbon emissions are said to come from industry.
Britvic, Highland Spring and Tarmac are among the first companies to work with the Carbon Trust, an independent company set up by the British Government, in its Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator (IEEA)—a 15 million innovation program designed to cut carbon, reduce costs, and make U.K. manufacturing more competitive.
They were joined the previous week by trade bodies including the Food and Drink Federation and Dairy U.K., and leading players in the dairy, bakery and confectionery industries. Britain’s largest retailer, Tesco, is also backing the program.
Through the IEEA, the Carbon Trust aims to transform the traditional sector-specific processes that underpin British manufacturing. In partnership with industry leaders, the organization will identify and demonstrate new, lower-carbon solutions that can be replicated widely across each sector. Carbon Trust expects trade bodies and businesses from around 25 different sectors to participate in the IEEA over a four-year period.
The program is expected to reduce energy costs for businesses by more than half a billion pounds and to cut carbon emissions by more than three million tons. It will also increase the capacity of these businesses to respond effectively to the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme, which comes into effect in April 2010.
