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Defra figures show UK businesses could save £6.4 billion per annum through no cost and low-cost resource efficiency improvements. Groundwork’s environmental business services are helping to turn this potential into a reality.
For example, in the Northwest of England, Groundwork UK is the accountable body for ENWORKS - a partnership of organisations which delivers internationally recognised environmental advice and support to business and is a former winner of the Ashden Award for Energy Efficiency.
A recent survey of 2,000 companies commissioned by ENWORKS found that, although 82% said resource efficiency was important to their business, only 33% had made any resource efficiency improvements in the last 12 months, and only 20% planned to make any improvements next year – showing that awareness alone is not leading to action. The survey also identified that there is a strong perception in companies that resource efficiency improvements require capital expenditure (i.e. new technology) and have an unacceptable rate of return on investment.
ENWORKS, however, has demonstrated that through the provision of practical one-to-one advice and tailored on-site support, measures requiring zero capital cost – such as behavioural change, eco design and improvements to premises, processes and procurement practices – can be achieved and can generate significant cost savings.
Recent analysis shows that businesses supported by ENWORKS are saving over £13 million each year through resource efficiency improvements that required no capital investment. In fact, 58% of the cost savings achieved with ENWORKS support needed no capital outlay. Where capital investment was required, 75% of these improvements paid for themselves within 12 months.
Further analysis shows that every £1 invested in ENWORKS identifies over £10 in bottom-line savings in businesses, and returns an additional £3.50 to the public purse through taxation and national insurance contributions (e.g. through new sales or the creation of new jobs).
ENWORKS is currently helping Northwest businesses with annual cost savings of over £112 million through reducing annual resource use by:
ENWORKS has also helped to create or safeguard over 7,370 jobs and to increase or safeguard sales worth £213 million.
In combination, these figures show that improving business resource efficiency can generate significant economic and environmental benefits, however, it is clear that this is not widely recognised in business, therefore, without support from programmes like ENWORKS, these benefits are unlikely to be realised.
