Green savings

Citation

(1999), "Green savings", Work Study, Vol. 48 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.1999.07948fab.009

Green savings

Green savings

UK industry will see a phenomenal increase in businesses going "green" over the next year, according to Keith Tozzi, chief executive of the British Standards Institution, the world's leading registrar for environment standards. He puts it down to companies showing hard-headed business sense rather than any desire just to be seen as "green". The financial bottom-line drives business thinking in this area. Leading-edge companies became the first in their sector to implement the standard," he added, referring to the 1,000 UK companies registered to date with the ISO14001 environment standard, "news of the benefits they saw spread among their competitors, and registration effectively became a passport to trade." Looking to the future for industry's "green" renaissance, he says: "We presently stand at the beginning of a quite phenomenal rate of growth in environmental registrations ... The market is set to grow four-fold in the next 12 months, with registrations predicted to increase from 10,000 to 40,000 globally." Government pressure and supply-chain "greening" are major factors in the surge of interest. Leading companies throughout Britain like Hewlett Packard and Vauxhall Motors are registered to the ISO 14001 environment standard, and are beginning to require their suppliers - thousands of small and medium-sized businesses across the UK - to conform. Since getting registered, Vauxhall Motors saved around £800,000 in the first year, reducing its annual electricity bill by six percent and its gas bill by five percent. Waste minimisation and recycling have also brought huge cash savings for Vauxhall. Companies in North America signing up to ISO 14001 include Ford, Boeing and IBM - all have seen similar benefits and are asking their networks of suppliers to conform to the standard.