Research published recently has suggested that, although the number of private sector participants outnumbers the public sector by 3 to 1 under the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency (CRC) Scheme, the public sector has 2.5 times as many participants classed as ''leaders'' in their attitudes to sustainability.
Measuring up
The ‘Sustainable Innovation Opportunities Created by the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme' report provides an insight into the current environmental performance of the 3,000 scheme participants ahead of the publication of the first official league tables later this year.
It measured companies' performance against a range of sustainability and energy reduction-related indicators.
These included: sustainability; carbon emission reduction and management; social awareness and responsibility; and environmental return on investment (which assesses the additional financial value from investment projects in terms of environmental and social benefits).
Leaders and laggards
Organisations are then placed into one of four groups: leaders; early majority; late majority; and laggards.
The report found that the private sector has only 5% of leaders compared with 42% in the public sector, and energy intensive sub-sectors, such as manufacturing, were among the lowest overall in terms of the percentage of leaders.
And although the private sector showed better awareness of carbon management than the public sector, the public sector scored well on the sustainability indicator, particularly in central and local government, and academic institutions.
But the NHS and the police were considered to be worst within the public sector, with the NHS having the highest proportion of laggards of all organisations in the study.
Source : The Informer
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