Most businesses lack tools to meet their carbon commitments

The CRC scheme requires major energy users to monitor their environmental impact

IT leaders have a key role to play in measuring energy use

As many as two-thirds of the 20,000 UK businesses that will be affected by the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) do not have sufficient software systems in place to analyse their performance.

This is according to an independent report released today by ERP software provider IFS.

This information comes the day before registration closes for the Environment Agency scheme, which stipulates that businesses must constantly monitor electricity, gas and static fuel use.

Alastair Sorbie, CEO of IFS, said: “Like a lot of initiatives originating from Europe, not enough attention is being paid to the immediacy of the CRC.

“You can’t hide from the fact that many UK businesses now have to build these systems to track and report on environmental impact. Non-compliance will affect your business.”

Sorbie’s comments come after a recent report from British Gas Business, highlighting the fact that thousands of UK businesses that qualify for CRC monitoring and should have registered by 30 September have not yet done so, even though this could mean a fine of up to £45,000.

To qualify for the CRC, a business has to have had a total half-hourly electricity consumption of over 6,000 mega watt-hours during 2008.

IFS has developed an eco-footprint management tool that provides analysis across product life cycle and the supply chain. It captures information in the same way a financial system would, but measures what materials go in and what come out to ascertain the environmental impact of the whole process.