Companies 'should offer green incentives'

News Article - 20 January 2009
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Businesses keen to promote corporate social responsibility and the idea of accounting for carbon to their customers have been advised to not simply preach energy efficiency.

Rather, Carmel McQuaid, climate change manager at Marks & Spencer, said that such firms should consider offering their consumers an incentive to go green.

She explained that one scheme the retailer has used is encouraging people to recycle their old clothes by offering them a £5 money off voucher when they drop garments off at Oxfam.

Ms McQuaid stated that this had resulted in more clothes recycling in the UK and had increased the money raised by Oxfam.

And Jon McGowan, head of consumer marketing at the Energy Saving Trust, added that the government was also trying to encourage Britons to go green by supporting initiatives that help to save carbon emissions.

According to the Energy Saving Trust website, some £8.5 billion of energy is wasted in the UK every year - enough to give every man, woman and child in the country an annual payment of £140.

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