Firms make new year resolutions on carbon

2007 is already shaping up to become a year of action on climate change for business, with a plethora of carbon reduction schemes announced in January.

Among new projects unveiled last month were:
international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer intends to become carbon neutral across all its offices in 2007 through a combination of offsetting and reducing emissions

a 'carbon neutral shipping service' being developed by logistics company DHL will, at a customer's request, offset carbon dioxide emissions from deliveries through alternative vehicle technologies and renewable fuels. The project will be verified by auditing body SGS.

Hewlett-Packard says that by 2010 it will reduce carbon dioxide emissions from facilities owned and leased by the company worldwide to 15 per cent below 2006 levels. It will attempt to do this through a new alliance with WWF-US aimed at 'developing goals for improved product performance, focusing in particular on energy efficiency'.

Tesco is to assign a 'carbon rating' to everything it sells so that consumers can opt for lower carbon goods. The retailer's labelling scheme will be based on factors such as energy required for manufacture, packaging and transportation.

Aviva intends to become the first insurer to 'carbon-neutralize' its operations. The multinational, which operates in 25 countries, will offset its annual emissions of about 110,000 tonnes of carbon, starting with those generated in 2006.  It will do so in part through tree-planting and renewable energy generation.