RS Components has been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard (CTS) which is a benchmark that assesses a company's commitment to addressing issues in its business related to climate change.
To achieve it, RS reduced its carbon footprint by a minimum of 2.5% over three years.
The standard measures electricity and gas consumption, on-site energy consumption, fuel consumption, fugitive emissions, emissions from business transport, as well as the organisation's internal and external programmes to promote energy efficiency.
However, the commitment to address issues related to climate change is disappointing in UK industry as a whole. To date, less than 100 companies in the UK have met CTS requirements, and even less have achieved the more difficult level two certification.
RS is the first distributor of electronic and electrical components to acquire the level two Standard.
"Energy efficient products are a huge part of our business, and it's very important to us that we practice what we preach," said Paul Quested, general manager, RS Components.
The process included a number of practical actions such as replacing 1,382 light bulbs at its Corby headquarters with energy efficient lamps.
Over three years, this resulted in a saving of 345.5 tonnes of CO2 emissions from lighting alone.
From 2011, the estimated 5,000 UK companies impacted by the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), RS included, will be mandated to purchase CRC allowances to cover emissions for each year.
It is expected that these allowances will be costed at £12 per tonne of CO2. Based on this fee, RS has reduced the amount it will need to spend on allowances by £4,146 for lighting alone.
The Carbon Trust Standard, issued by the Carbon Trust.
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