Green giants join forces to fight carbon emissions

Forty top British companies will next week launch an unprecedented campaign to shrink Britain's carbon footprint, by cutting their own energy use and trying to turn "green consumerism into a mass movement".

They will introduce promotions and new products to make it easy for people to save energy and cut emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. And they will set a "Blue Peter style" target for the total amount of carbon dioxide to be saved by the campaign.

The initiative - to be launched by Tony Blair next month - aims to counter a widespread feeling of helplessness among people who want to act to combat climate change, but fear that any contribution they make will be too small to make any difference.

It is being spearheaded by some of the country's best-known brands - including Tesco, Marks & Spencer, BSkyB, HSBC, the BBC, B&Q and 0₂, working with the Prime Minister's office, the National Consumer Council and the Church of England. Top businessmen - such as Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, and James Murdoch, chief executive of BSkyB - are intimately involved.

The companies at the heart of the plans have all promised to clean up their own operations as a precondition of the campaign. "Our philosophy is that we will not ask customers to do something that we have not done", said one.

BSkyB, for example, has cut greenhouse-gas emissions from its sites by 47 per cent, buys all its electricity from renewable sources and has announced its intention to go carbon neutral. Last week it began a programme of enabling two million set-top boxes to switch automatically to standby when not being used, in an attempt to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 32,000 tons a year.

Marks & Spencer aims to go carbon neutral within five years and Tesco plans to work out the carbon footprint of each of its businesses worldwide, publish the total on its website, and take measures to cut it.

Sir Terry Leahy says: "The key to success is to turn green consumption into a mass movement. By harnessing the buying power of millions of consumers we can drive change throughout the economy.

"Businesses like mine, with an international reach, have a particular responsibility to give a lead. This is about transforming our business model so that the reduction of our carbon footprint becomes a central driver of our business and not just some PR add-on."

He says that sales of organic food have risen by a "phenomenal 39 per cent" in the past year, and that labelling of the salt and fat content of food is "leading to the most extraordinary changes in buying behaviour, which in turn is driving innovation throughout the industry."

The company plans to label each product with its carbon footprint, believing that this "will send very powerful economic signals through the supply chain".

The move is part of a belated attempt by Mr Blair to cut carbon-dioxide emissions at home as he campaigns for a new global agreement to take over from the present arrangements under the Kyoto Protocol, when they run out in five years' time. So far, emissions of the gas have risen since he came to power in 1997.

He and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, are stepping up a lobbying campaign of world leaders - including President George W Bush - to try to get the G8 summit at Heiligendamm, Germany, in June to agree a limit on the amount of pollution the climate can tolerate. The aim is to get national allowances that can be bought and sold internationally, and provide help to developing countries.

The two leaders were boosted by the EU's agreement last month to cut carbon dioxide emissions, and increase renewable energy, both by 20 per cent by 2020.

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