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UK small businesses embrace sustainability

Interest among SMEs in energy saving and eco-friendly goods has increased by 75% in the last year, according to research.

e-commerce for small businesses firm Alibaba.com believe the rise in searches and enquiries for sustainable products indicates that more and more businesses are taking practical steps to reduce their carbon footprint and appeal to environmentally minded customers.

Searches for eco-friendly goods including bags, stationery, fabrics, beauty and cleaning products, increased by a considerable 224 per cent in the last year and demand for energy efficient lighting products alone has almost doubled in the last year.

Maggie Choo, general manager EMEA, Alibaba.com, said: “Penalties for not complying with carbon legislation and demand from customers for green products will rise, so being environmentally sustainable makes increasingly good business sense.

“The financial benefits of being green far outweigh the negatives and will continue to do so as carbon reduction and sustainability legislation tightens and social acceptability increases.”

The findings are reassuring as Government statistics show that whilst small and medium enterprises (SMEs) account for 45% of UK business energy use.

Research by the Carbon Trustfound that many SMEs had said they were sceptical of introducing green measures seeing them as an unnecessary cost in an already difficult economy.

That study showed that only 22% claim to be investing in creating greener products or services.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .