Enlightened self-interest perhaps best sums up business’s attitude towards the environment, says Hugh Jones, a project director at the Carbon Trust.

Those companies that have reduced their carbon footprint, making significant cost savings in the process, are now seeing a brand boost.

“By doing the right thing – not cosmetically, but top to bottom – companies are actually able to infuse their brand with some of the positivity of doing that,” Jones says.

Companies are aware of, if not yet afraid, of consumer power. “We haven’t yet reached the stage where goods are being selected or not on the basis of what carbon they contain,” he says. “But there is a feeling [that] if a company takes a wrong step it will turn off customers and that will turn off shareholders.”

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Walkers is all too aware of consumer power. The crisp manufacturer became one of the first to display a carbon label on its products to show the energy consumption directly involved in producing a packet of its crisps. For example, the carbon cost of a packet of Walkers’ cheese and onion crisps, as calculated by the Carbon Trust, is 75g. The manufacturer has been reducing its energy and water use since 2000.

The initiative is a win-win, according to Neil Campbell, the chief executive of Walkers. “On the one hand it has been an opportunity to do the right thing and demonstrate our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint, while on the other, becoming more carbon efficient has meant the implementation of more cost-effective production processes.”

The supermarket retailer Waitrose has reduced its carbon emissions by 16 per cent across its business since 2001. It is now setting “more stretching targets”, says Nick Monger-Godfrey, its head of corporate social responsibility. The retailer is investing in more efficient refridgeration systems and has put a sustainable construction framework in place to ensure that new stores are energy efficient in the way they are built, run and decommissioned. Since October 1 it has bought all its electricity from renewable sources and is now looking at generating renewable energy on site. “That’s a real statement,” Monger-Godfrey says. “We are trying to encourage and motivate the marketplace by buying green electricity.”

Perhaps the next step is for retailers to cooperate on climate change. “Retail is very competitive,” he says. “If you look at the major retailers and the initiatives that have been announced they are very much at the leading edge, but I would agree that there are opportunities to work together on this subject.” Where retailers and some FTSE 100 companies lead, others are following with good plans and the best intentions, Jones says. “Without wanting to give companies an easy ride I think some of this will take several years and certainly several months to bear fruit.”

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