The recent increases in consumer energy prices mean that price hikes for businesses aren’t far away. Consequently companies that reduce their energy consumption may enjoy a smaller carbon footprint – but the impact on the bottom line from saving energy will be diminished.
In turn, this reinforces the need for companies to look at all areas of potential cost cutting, rather than devoting their efforts to energy because it’s high profile.
For example, there are still many companies that are wasting money and resources because they haven’t updated their transaction processing to take advantage of new technologies. Part of the problem, I believe, is that prosaic areas such as transaction processing aren’t ‘sexy’ and high profile so they often don’t get the level of attention from the board commensurate with their cost to the business – and to UK Plc.
I am not suggesting for one moment that efforts to reduce carbon footprint are diluted, indeed they are essential. But I would suggest that tackling other costs that will deliver a fast return on investment reduces overheads and potentially frees up fund for higher investment in sustainability. And replacing paper with electronic transactions offers a host of sustainability benefits in its own right.
