ABSTRACT
The situation for individual companies is often a microcosm of the national picture. For most businesses, energy usage is the overwhelming part of their carbon footprint, so the most significant reduction they can make to their environmental impact is through reducing the carbon emissions caused by their energy consumption. For smaller businesses a not-so-formal energy plan is sufficient. The senior management needs to appreciate the importance of a sustainable energy policy, and the benefits it can deliver. It is worth crossing off aspects where a small enterprise has little influence such as the primary energy resources coming into the country and the premises where the enterprise has rented for its operations. The areas of energy usage that business managers can influence fall into four categories: reducing the usage of energy; choosing energy sources to improve sustainability; producing own sustainable energy; and compensating for unavoidable consequences of energy usage.
