So your organisation has gone green. You’ve switched to renewable electricity, swapped the old light bulbs for low-energy ones and switched the company car fleet to eco-friendly vehicles. Job done? Not quite.

Some businesses are already showing the innovative thinking needed for the low-carbon economy of the future. Next week, in the first Sunday Times Best Green Companies Awards, we celebrate the achievements of some of those companies, showing just what makes them special.

Many other firms, however, are lagging far behind. And there is no standardised green accounting system, no government benchmarking – and so no way for customers easily to be sure of the truth behind environment-friendly claims.

The government only adds to the confusion. According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Britain has cut its emissions by about 7% since 1990 – but that statistic excludesCO2 shipping, aviation and tourism. Yet the Treasury’s environmental accounts show that Britain generated 733m tonnes of CO2 in 2005, roughly the same as 18 years ago.

This failure to reduce emissions is partly a result of the success of Britain’s businesses. Gross domestic product rose 44% between 1990 and 2005 and nondomestic energy consumption increased nearly 11% in the same period. But there are indications of the progress that business may be capable of: the energy consumed per unit of output fell about 23% during the same 15 years, thanks to improved efficiency.

What’s more, the Renewable Energy Association believes that the gas generated by landfill sites, sewage and other organic waste could provide 10% of Britain’s gas and electricity – if the government created the right regulatory framework.

Some companies have already found that confronting climate change brings its own rewards. BT, for example, uses 0.7% of the entire British power supply, so cutting CO2 emissions by 60% over the past decade has brought big benefits in terms of efficiency and energy saving. It has plans to generate 25% of its energy from wind farms built on its sites, including Goonhilly in Cornwall.

Adrian Hosford, BT’s director of corporate responsibility, says: “Our new networks and cables are being built to cope with higher temperatures, stronger winds and flooding in anticipation of more climatic extremes. We also want to cut our carbon by another 50%, not just to do our bit to combat climate change but because it makes good business sense now.”

For other types of business, however, the benefits of sustainability and cutting carbon are less clear. In a recent survey by global management consultancy McKinsey, 44% of chief executives said that climate change was not on their immediate agenda.

The legal and regulatory uncertainty partly explains business leaders’ inaction. Why should power generators invest in nuclear plants or carbon capture technology when there is no clear strategy for pricing carbon? Why would any construction company cut its profits by spending on better waste management when competitors are not obliged to do the same?

“Few in the investment community believe that the government has worked out how to resolve the tensions between, for example, solving climate change and ensuring energy security,” says Rory Sullivan of Insight Investment, an asset management company with more than £100 billion under its control. “Such uncertainties are a real barrier to action.”

The hopes for resolving such problems rest largely with the United Nations negotiations on creating a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions, a process due to conclude in December 2009. Also, the second phase of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme could mean businesses will have to pay more for fossil fuel energy.

Yet there are many other pressures on businesses to change. Craig Smith, professor of business ethics and corporate responsibility at the Insead business school in Fontainebleau, believes corporate reputations are at stake: “People increasingly expect companies to act responsibly – banks are facing pressure over responsible lending, brewers have to pay attention to responsible consumption and oil and energy companies have to confront climate change.”

Some companies will see such responsibilities as a threat and others as an opportunity. For 21st-century businesses, it will be not just the leanest but the cleanest that thrive.

Infinis

For most companies, sustainability simply means finding ways to reduce the environmental damage they cause. Infinis’ business is all about actively improving the environment.

The firm captures the methane emitted by landfill sites, preventing it reaching the atmosphere where, tonne for tonne, it has a global warming impact 21 times greater than CO2. The captured gas is burned to generate electricity, so reducing the demand for power stations that burn fossil fuels.

“We are one of the few big British firms that can claim to be carbon positive,” says Ewan Campbell-Lendrum, head of health, safety, quality and environment at Infinis, pictured above with his colleague Kate McFadden at the Brogborough landfill gas power station, near Milton Keynes. “We stop greenhouse gases from reaching the atmosphere and we generate enough green power to supply 400,000 homes.”

Infinis has gas collection facilities at 80 landfill sites, from Aberdeen to the home counties. The business grew out of the government’s decision to create a raft of subsidies to promote renewable energy. Under schemes such as the nonfossil fuel obligation and renewable obligation certificates, Infinis can sell its electricity and also claim a subsidy that can more than double its value.

Alan Lovell, chief executive of Infinis, says subsidies are essential to help alternative energy companies to compete with traditional generators using coal and gas. “They allow renewable power generators to establish the new technologies needed for a sustainable future.”