ABSTRACT
Emissions measurement, target setting and reporting, as discussed in the previous chapter, are generally considered to be the initial activities in a company’s response to climate change. A common next step is evaluating and implementing options for the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in order to reach the aspirations expressed by the climate change targets. For most companies this means deploying a range of relatively ‘easy-to-implement’ activities that involve some basic technological and behavioural changes (Hoffman, 2006). Examples of such technological changes include measures to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption such as improving insulation of company properties, introducing energy management systems aimed at a better management of lighting and heating of buildings, and replacing outdated, energy-inefficient production installations. Options for behavioural changes comprise improving employee awareness of the implications of their use of office equipment such as printers and computers for a company’s energy consumption and reducing the carbon impact of business travel (Okereke, 2007). Particularly when climate change functions as an eye-opener by showing that there are previously untapped low-cost options to reduce energy use, reduction activities of this kind form the ‘low-hanging fruit’ of climate change mitigation (Hoffman, 2006). Overall, such activities are largely operational, and concern the integration of climate change in corporate day-to-day practices.
