EDF to invite business community to join Team Green Britain

Energy giant EDF is to expand its high-profile Team Green Britain campaign to reach out to the business community from this autumn.

The company is planning a series of consumer-focused green events throughout the summer starting with Green Britain Day this Thursday and followed by Bike Week from 19 June.

BusinessGreen.com has learned that these consumer campaigns will be followed in the autumn by the launch of a range of services designed to help small and medium-sized businesses reduce their environmental impact and cut their energy bills.

The new services are expected to focus on helping businesses cope with the government's Carbon Reduction Commitment legislation and improve their energy efficiency. They are expected to be delivered through online tools and face-to-face workshops similar to the Café Energy business customer events that EDF has run in the past.

A spokesman for the company confirmed that the new services would be delivered as part of the Team Green Britain campaign and would aim to help businesses identify where they can enhance energy efficiency and cut their energy bills.

The news comes just days after EDF unveiled a series of low-carbon pledges, including a commitment to cut the carbon intensity of its electricity generation by 60 per cent by the end of the decade against a 2006 base line.

The company also pledged to support its plans for up to four new nuclear power plants, increasing investment in developing the skills necessary to support a new fleet of nuclear reactors and working with the government and NGOs to develop a long-term radioactive waste solution.

In particular, the company said that it plans take on 10,000 new recruits in the next five years and build two new state-of-the-art campuses to develop the skills needed to support low-carbon energy supplies.

An EDF spokesman said that further details on the new campuses would be released in the near future. "There is a skills shortage and there will be job opportunities available in the low-carbon economy," he added. "We have said we want four new nuclear power plants by 2025 with the first coming online by 2018. Those are ambitious plans and these campuses will play a key role [in supporting the new power plants]."