What's the next green frontier? Tax hikes

While changes to policy usually mean a headache for the finance director,

fresh changes to the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) could work in their

favour.
The new CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme requires companies that spend £500,000

or more on annual energy bills to pay for annual carbon emissions.
Companies will feature in a league table with their rebate dependent on how

they fare against other businesses.
One of the biggest concerns for FDs has been the CRC’s affect on cashflow.

Under the original terms of the scheme, members were to pay for emissions
for both 2010 and 2011 in April 2011. Recent changes mean businesses will
now pay for one year in 2011, with 2010 effectively being a ‘free’ year.
Early bonus
Another announcement means early adopters now have a choice of standards
they can adhere to. Companies wanting to start CRC initiatives as soon as
possible can take up the Early Action Metric, so all reductions made before

the CRC start date will count towards their league table position.
Companies can choose from the Carbon Trust Standard and now the British
Standard Institute’s Kitemark Scheme.

For a company to receive the BSI Kitemark, it must show:
*A 2.5% reduction in energy usage per year calculated over three years’ worth of
data
* Identification and assessment of significant energy aspects, and
* An energy management system compliant with BS EN 16001.

Companies that have piloted the BSI EN 16001 standard, on which the
Kitemark scheme is based, include Virgin Trains, City of London Corporation

and Robert Wiseman Dairies.