First Direct becomes first bank to win Carbon Trust standard

First Direct last week became the first bank to be awarded the Carbon Trust Standard after reducing its carbon emissions by more than 14 per cent since 2007, saving 1,500 tonnes of CO2 a year.

The Carbon Trust Standard requires an organisation to measure, manage and reduce its carbon footprint while delivering year-on-year cuts in emissions over a three-year period.

It is designed to reward companies that have made efforts to reduce their carbon emissions and will also improve their position in environmental league tables to be published as part of the upcoming Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), a cap-and-trade scheme for UK businesses that spend more than £1m a year on electricity.

First Direct said it has been working with the Carbon Trust since 2006 and has introduced a range of low-cost measures to reduce carbon emissions, including employee education schemes, automatic PC shutdown software in offices, replacement of air conditioning units, solar panel installations, intelligent building management, and introducing car-sharing schemes and shuttle buses.

"It makes good business sense to reduce our carbon emissions as we are achieving energy cost savings of about £200,000 each year," said Matt Colebrook, chief executive at the bank. "These savings have meant that we can become even more sustainable by reinvesting in further carbon-reduction initiatives."

The bank, which is a subsidiary of HSBC, said it had also worked with local schools to encourage employees to recycle.

Harry Morrison, general manager of the Carbon Trust Standard, said that First Direct highlighted the fact that six-figure savings in energy bills were possible with minimal financial outlays. "In the current climate, every business should be asking how much cash their company can save, and looking at ways they can follow First Direct's lead in getting employees on board in their carbon-cutting initiatives," he said.

Other notable holders of the standard, which was introduced last year, include B&Q, BT, Diageo and Royal Mail.

Some companies, such as Sky, have been reticent about joining the scheme because doing so gives tacit approval to methods of measurement set out by the Carbon Reduction Commitment that the company opposes.

The way emissions are measured under the standard is exactly the same as the way they will be measured under the CRC, meaning that electricity generated from renewable technologies for which subsidies have already been claimed will be considered to have the same carbon footprint as electricity from the grid.

Critics claim this approach to carbon accounting undermines the case for investing in renewable energy. BT is currently rethinking plans for its own £250m wind farm due to concerns that the government's labyrinthine subsidy scheme would prevent the resulting power being used to count towards emissions reductions as measured under the CRC.