Policy paper

2010 to 2015 government policy: business and the environment

Updated 8 May 2015

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

© Crown copyright 2015

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-policy-business-and-the-environment/2010-to-2015-government-policy-business-and-the-environment

This is a copy of a document that stated a policy of the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government. The previous URL of this page was https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/encouraging-businesses-to-manage-their-impact-on-the-environment. Current policies can be found at the GOV.UK policies list.

Issue

The UK’s economy and businesses depend on global trade and resources. However, factors like climate change and a growing world population mean there’s more pressure on energy, natural resources and the wider environment.

We need to make our economy and businesses more sustainable, so we can grow the economy and also reduce our environmental impact.

Using resources (like water, energy and natural materials) more efficiently will bring direct benefits to UK businesses, including:

  • saving around £23 billion a year
  • reducing their carbon emissions
  • more resilience to climate change and rising prices of commodities

If businesses provide clear and relevant information about the environmental impacts and performance of products and services, consumers can make informed choices about what they buy.

Actions

Encouraging resource efficiency and environmental management

We’re helping businesses use resources more efficiently and manage their environmental impacts by:

  • funding the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which gives advice and support to help businesses use raw materials, water and energy more efficiently

  • working with industry and others to implement the Resource security action plan

  • using the purchasing power of government and the wider public sector to support businesses that produce more sustainable products and services

  • providing tools to help businesses reduce the environmental impacts of their operations and supply chains, including environmental management systems and tools to report greenhouse gas emissions

  • funding the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) Environmental Awards Forum, which accredits other organisations’ environmental award schemes, to make sure these have high standards

Supporting innovations that make products and services more environmentally friendly

‘Eco-innovations’ are new or improved technologies, products or services that reduce impact on the environment and the use of natural resources. We’re:

This is part of wider government work to invest in research, development and innovation.

Improving the sustainability of UK consumption

About 75% of each person’s carbon emissions in the UK are from products and services.

To identify where the biggest impacts are, and help business target their work on sustainability, we’re:

We’re also encouraging businesses to make consumer products more sustainable.

Giving consumers clear information about the impact of products and goods on the environment

To help consumers make informed choices about the products and services they buy, we’re:

  • advising business on how to make good environmental claims in marketing and advertising

  • delivering EU energy efficiency labelling (where we have an enforcement role too) and Ecolabel schemes, to encourage good environmental labelling on products and services

Working in Europe and internationally

We’re working with other EU member states on plans to encourage sustainable use of natural resources, and a shift towards resource-efficient economic growth.

We’re inputting to the EU Single Market for Green Products Initiative

We’re also negotiating product specific regulations under the Ecodesign and Energy Labelling Directives.

Defra co-ordinates work in the UK on the 10-Year Framework Programme (10YFP) for international work on sustainable consumption and production.

Background

In 2011 to 2012 low carbon and environmental goods and services were worth £128 billion and employed around 938,000 in the UK.

In August 2011, we published Enabling the transition to a green economy: government and business working together. This was intended to give the private sector more clarity on what we mean by a ‘green economy’ and the policies we’re putting in place to achieve this, including action on climate change, resource efficiency and waste.

The Environmental Audit Committee published ‘A green economy’ in April 2012. This recommended several measures the government should take to improve its strategy and policies to support the move to the green economy.

The government responded to the committee’s recommendations in July 2012, building on the approach set out in Enabling the transition to a green economy.

Defra is developing a new set of sustainable development indicators. These will help us review progress.

In March 2012, we published the Resource Security Action Plan, to help business identify and plan for potential shortages of raw materials, and associated problems like volatile prices. The Ecosystems Markets Task Force, which was set up to review the opportunities for UK business from expanding markets in environmentally-friendly goods, services and products, has now published its final report.

Who we’re working with

WRAP co-ordinates the Product Sustainability Forum (PSF), which is a collaboration of grocery retailers and suppliers, academics, NGOs and government. The PSF is working to improve the environmental performance of grocery products.

WRAP also co-ordinates the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan which is a collaboration of retailers, brands, recyclers and charities working together to improve the sustainability of UK clothing consumption.

The Green Economy Council is a group of businesses brought together to discuss how industry and government can support the move to a sustainable economy.

The Circular Economy Task Force looks at ways of capturing materials, so that today’s goods are remanufactured or reused to become tomorrow’s goods, rather than landfill.

We also work closely with the Technology Strategy Board and Knowledge Transfer Networks to deliver policies on resource efficiency, products and innovation.

We regularly consult with trade organisations and associations and businesses about:

  • resource efficiency and product sustainability
  • industry views on European Commission proposals
  • government sustainable procurement standards

The Environment Agency help businesses and other organisations to become resource efficient through their work in the following areas:

  • regulating the environmental performance of large industrial installations under the Industrial Emissions Directive, including their usage of raw materials, water and energy and their waste production
  • helping companies to see waste as a resource and divert it away from landfill, encouraging reuse and recycling
  • supporting low-carbon technologies and administering a number of statutory schemes aimed at reducing carbon emissions
  • managing water resources for homes, industry, agriculture and for the environment

Bills and legislation

The Eco-Design Directive (2009/125/EC) is implemented in the UK by the Eco-Design for Energy-Related Products Regulations 2010 (SI 2010 No.2617). This applies to a wide range of products that use energy, ranging from motors to televisions and is designed to lessen their impact on the environment.

The Energy Information Regulations 2011 implement the revised EU Energy Labelling Framework Directive 2010/30/EU. These cover the duty to give consumers clear information about how much energy a product uses, and to design more energy-efficient products.

There are regulations for various products under the Ecodesign and Energy Directives which apply in the UK. The National Measurement Office (NMO) is responsible for ensuring that products comply with these regulations.

The EU Ecolabel Regulation (2010/66/EC) sets out how the EU Ecolabel scheme operates.

Traders making unfair or misleading environmental claims about products and services can be prosecuted under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

The EU Energy Efficiency Directive 2012 (Article 6) sets out requirements for central governments( core departments and executive agencies that are legally part of their structure) to buy highly energy-efficient products, services and buildings from 5 June 2014.

Appendix 1: resource security action plan

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

We’re implementing the Resource security action plan, which we published in March 2012.

We’re:

  • funding demonstration trials in critical material recovery (where reusable materials are recovered from waste) – the trials are being carried out by WRAP
  • running an innovation challenge with the Technology Strategy Board to fund local economy closed-loop projects
  • working with business through the Circular Economy Task Force to find solutions to resource security issues

The risks to business

There are rising concerns for UK businesses about the security of supply of important metals and minerals. These materials are crucial to many aspects of the economy, including important low-carbon technologies.

We’re not expecting to run out of these resources in the near future. Instead, business’s concerns are about reliable and sustainable access to materials (security of supply), rather than scarcity.

The risks to businesses are that there will be increasing competition for resources, price volatility and potential interruptions in supply. These will be caused by a combination of:

  • growing worldwide demand
  • concentration of supply in a small number of countries
  • trade restrictions, in some cases
  • lack of currently viable alternatives
  • time lags in the supply response (such as extraction) to increased demand

Increasing competition for resources is also putting pressure on the environment.

Encouraging businesses to take action

Businesses should assess their own supply risks and act appropriately - many are already doing so. They can mitigate risks in many ways, including:

  • better management of resources
  • reuse, recycling and recovery of materials
  • new ways of doing business

The Resource Dashboard allows businesses to assess their own risks and what they should do to mitigate them.

WRAP offers tools and guides to help businesses use resources more efficiently.

Appendix 2: research, evidence and statistics

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

Research and evidence

Breaking the links between business and economic growth, and resource intensity and environmental impact is important to the long-term success and competitive advantage of the UK economy.

In many areas this can be achieved through changes in technology and shifting to new, resource-efficient business models.

Defra has a science and evidence programme which supports the development, evaluation and implementation of this policy area.

See evidence programmes on:

  • sustainable behaviours (project codes EV05)
  • sustainable consumption and production (project codes EV02 and EV04)

External research centres

Defra jointly funds 2 external research centres with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Scottish government:

These research programmes aim to:

  • increase understanding of the processes through which more sustainable behaviours and practices can develop
  • provide advice on how policy can help this process

Research on business efficiency

It’s estimated 5% of UK business profits per year may be lost through inefficient use of resources. UK businesses could save around £23 billion per year by making simple changes to use resources more efficiently and help protect the environment.

Evidence on sustainable consumption

We publish evidence showing greenhouse gas emissions by sector and product group.

This shows:

  • which areas of UK consumption have the greatest greenhouse gas impacts
  • which product groups are highest priority to target

More evidence relating to energy-using products:

Impact assessments for energy using products are available at the Department for Innovation and Skills (BIS) impact assessment library.

Statistics

Environmental accounts are yearly national environmental accounts providing information on natural resources, economic activity and physical flows in relation to the environment.

Green economy sustainable development indicators are annual indicators and analysis, which display performance by the UK across various measures of the environment as we attempt to increase sustainability.

Electricity consumption by household is a statistical release containing information of total electricity consumption by UK households (by TWH and CO2 emissions) and the breakdown of this by appliance type.

Water use by industry is information on the proportions of water supply used in different private and public sectors.

CO2 emissions by different sub-groups in manufacturing sector is an in-depth look at the differing CO2 emissions by different sub-groups of manufacturing in the UK (eg chemicals, machinery and equipment).

Central government carbon footprint is one-off analysis of central government’s carbon footprint by area of interest (eg consumables, machinery).

Appendix 3: working in Europe

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

The European Commission’s Resource-Efficient Europe initiative aims to bring about a shift to a resource-efficient, low-carbon economy.

We’re working with other member states to implement the ‘Roadmap to a resource efficient Europe’, an important part of the initiative.

The ‘Eco-innovation action plan’ aims to improve the market uptake and growth of products, services and technologies that benefit the environment.

These will jointly help to:

  • reduce pressure on the environment
  • bridge the gap between innovation and the market
  • increase opportunities for growth

Negotiating on ecodesign and energy labelling regulations

UK negotiations on regulations made by the EC under the Ecodesign Directive and Energy Labelling Directive regulations are based on 3 principles:

  • there are net benefits to the UK overall
  • UK businesses are not disproportionally affected
  • there is no significant negative impact on consumers, in particular the affordability and life cycle cost of the product

See the status of negotiations and evidence summaries.

We implement the EU Ecolabel scheme in the UK.

Appendix 4: reducing the environmental impact of consumer products

This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.

Because the UK imports many of the products we use, consumption here has impacts on the environment around the world.

When we think about the environmental impacts of a product, we consider its whole life cycle, including:

  • raw materials
  • production processes
  • retail and distribution
  • how it is used
  • what happens when we’ve stopped using it (end of life)

This can give a very different perspective from thinking just about businesses and activities within the UK.

What we’re doing to help businesses

Research and evidence

We’re gathering evidence on the scale and nature of the problems. For example, the Product Sustainability Forum has identified the top 50 environmental ‘hotspots’ for the grocery sectors.

Environmental footprinting

Environmental footprinting methods are used to assess the environmental impacts associated with a product throughout its whole lifecycle.

We’ve helped develop a UK method for footprinting greenhouse gas impacts - the PAS2050.

We’re influencing the development of new EU environmental footprinting methods for products and organisations.

Encouraging voluntary agreements

We’re encouraging businesses to take collaborative voluntary action to make their products more sustainable, through agreements like:

We’re working with the British Standards Institute and its EU and international equivalents to encourage them to cover environmental issues in their voluntary, business-led product standards.

We’re also working to improve sustainable production in the food supply chain.

Implementing EU standards and schemes

We’re implementing EU Energy Labelling Directives and the EU Ecolabel scheme in the UK.

We’re also cutting out the least efficient products through EU mandatory minimum Ecodesign standards for the environmental performance of energy related products.

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