A new partnership between the University of Edinburgh Business School and Haymarket Media Group aims to provide emissions-cutting guidance to businesses struggling to reduce their carbon footprints.

The ENDS Carbon initiative will provide detailed analysis to organisations, benchmarking their environmental performance against their peer group. The first report, to be published later in May, will evaluate the UK supermarket sector and is backed by Tesco, Asda, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose.

“Lots of companies have calculated their carbon footprint, but they don’t know how they compare to their competitors,” said Craig Mackenzie, ENDS Carbon director. “This new venture will show them how they are doing against their peer group and highlight opportunities to improve performance.”

He added, “Reducing carbon emissions is becoming big business, and it is one of the few parts of the economy still growing in the recession. The green-tinted government stimulus package brings over £500 million of new investment into low-carbon ventures, and new regulations require over 5000 companies and public bodies to start measuring and reducing their emissions from next year.”

The new initiative is being launched with an investment from Haymarket Media Group, publisher of the ENDS Report and its sister publications.

The spin-out, which combines the University’s carbon benchmarking expertise with the reach of ENDS. underlines Edinburgh’s emerging role as a hub for low-carbon technology and carbon start-up businesses. The University is now a major international centre for carbon science, carbon capture technology and carbon management education.

“Climate change is a vital issue for the business community and a hot topic for business school students,” said Nick Oliver, head of the University of Edinburgh Business School. “The new venture builds the Business School’s international reputation for leadership in this area and provides much-needed knowledge to the business community as we move to a low carbon economy.”

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