Twelve senior Scottish businessmen and women have joined together to encourage more businesses in Scotland to do their bit to limit the damage of climate change – and reap the business benefits of improved energy and resource efficiency as a result.

The Scottish Climate Change Business Delivery Group (CCBDG) was formed eighteen months ago in response to rising concern about the impact climate change will have on the global economy.  There is now wide scientific consensus that climate change is due to human activity with Professor Stern’s 2007 Report making the long run economic cost abundantly clear. 

Eighteen months later and the global economy is a much changed environment and businesses could be forgiven for focussing their attention on survival.  However, that is not the message from Scotland’s leading businesses.  In a letter to over 2000 IoD members, the CCBDG say “there is strong evidence that carbon efficiency is good for cost control and we believe there is an imperative to ensure that the recent focus on limiting CO₂ emissions is not lost”.

The Group is encouraging as many businesses as possible to take action to tackle climate change and recommend joining the Prince of Wales Mayday Network as one of the best ways to do that. 

The May Day Network already has 1300 members across the UK, with 132 in Scotland. It is free to join and is managed in Scotland by Scottish Business in the Community (SBC) – the charity committed to the promotion of responsible business practice. The Network encourages each company to make ‘pledges' to monitor, report and cut their carbon emissions and uses a number of environmental partners to deliver energy saving advice and other support. All members commit to tackle climate change by pledging to take one or more of the following six actions:

1.        Calculate your company’s carbon footprint

2.        Report your carbon footprint publicly or to Scottish Business in the Community

3.        Set an absolute target and take action to reduce your company’s emissions

4.        Encourage employees to reduce their carbon footprint at home and at work

5.        Mobilise customers to take action

6.        Work in partnership with suppliers to reduce emissions in the supply chain

To join, organisations simply access the SBC website www.sbcscot.com/mayday and make their pledges online.

“By taking that first step, you will be able to access further help, support and advice.  A step we believe to be good for the climate – and good for business” say the CCBDG members.

CCBDG member Brendan Dick, director of BT Scotland, said: “As Prince Charles’s corporate social responsibility ambassador for Scotland, I am passionate about getting more businesses, and people, to take easy, small steps to control climate change. That is what will make the difference in the short term. The Scottish government has proposed ambitious targets to reduce emissions, and we must ensure that businesses are increasingly aware of the challenges and opportunities climate change presents. We're recommending that they learn more by signing up to join the Prince of Wales May Day Network.”

The members of Scotland’s Climate Change Business Delivery Group are Ian Marchant (Scottish and Southern Energy); Satty Singh (MS Namana Ltd); Ian McKay (Royal Mail Group); Mary Grant (First ScotRail); Brendan Dick (BT Scotland); Ken Ross (Elphinstone Holdings Ltd); Susan Rice, (Lloyds TSB Scotland); Grant Hodges (PricewaterhouseCoopers); Lesley Ballantyne and Andrew Murphy (John Lewis);  Peter Lederer (Gleneagles Hotel); Gordon Dewar (BAA).