The Carbon Trust is a Government body that was set up to provide specialist support to business and the public sector to help cut carbon emissions, save energy and commercialise low carbon technologies.

Deritend are working with the Carbon Trust to help you get the most from their service. We can organise completely free energy audits if you spend more than £50k a year on energy, and help you turn the recommendations into real savings.

We’re also authorised suppliers under their Zero Interest Loan scheme. We’ll help you assess the potential energy savings and apply for an interest free loan on your behalf, which can cover the cost of new equipment, and installation costs. Loans of up to half a million pounds can be arranged under this scheme. Read our FAQ page here.

The Carbon Trust Standard is awarded to companies for measuring, managing and genuinely reducing their carbon emissions and committing to reducing them year on year. This is an excellent way to meet CRC objectives.

Even with the registration deadline some way off and no financial imperative at this stage, we would highly recommend getting your ‘house in order’ now. Forewarned is most definitely forearmed.

What is the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC)?

The CRC is a government scheme designed to introduce carbon trading to large public and private-sector organisations in the UK. If you are a subsidiary of an organisation, or part of a group, the group will be treated as one entity. The highest parent organisation will normally be responsible for reporting to the Department of Energy and Climate Change. If the parent is based outside the UK, a UK-based subsidiary will be nominated to act as the primary member.

Your organisation qualifies for the CRC if you have at least one half-hourly electricity meter settled on the half-hourly market, and if you used more than 6000 half-hourly megawatt-hours of electricity during the 2008 calendar year. This equates to approximately £500,000 spend on electricity.

If your company has the half-hourly meters but did not use the 6000 megawatt-hours of electricity then it must still register for the scheme.

What will happen if we qualify for the scheme?

Qualifying firms must make a full information disclosure by 30th September 2010. There is no financial impact at this stage, unless this deadline is not met! You must also measure and record your half-hourly electricity consumption during the financial year 2010-2011.
In 2011 the first sale of carbon emission allowances takes place. You will be required to purchase allowances for your forecast emissions for 2011/12, at a cost of £12 per tonne of CO2.

What happens to the money? Is this an energy tax?

This is not a tax, as all the money collected by the scheme will be refunded back to the participants. However, you will be judged against the other qualifying companies and ranked on your efforts to reduce your emissions. Those that are in the top 50% will receive a 10% bonus in the first year, paid for by those in the bottom half that lose 10% of their purchase investment. This percentage won and lost will increase year on year.

What can I do to ensure I finish in the top 50%?

Deritend can help you to reduce your carbon emissions, and therefore your energy cost, by working with you to identify inefficient machinery and processes, providing new energy efficient equipment, and bringing older assets back to optimum efficiency. We can also give you advice on grants and loans that are available for this kind of work.

Would I be better off waiting until the scheme kicks in to spend on energy efficiency?

It may seem that there is a benefit in delaying energy efficiency projects to gain a higher ranking when the scheme is fully underway. Whilst you might be able to gain a higher place in the league table this way, the sums don’t add up – you will save more on your energy bills by acting now to improve efficiency, than you might lose under the CRC.