The Carbon Trust Standard - feedback on progress.

From April 2010 any organisation in the UK consuming more than 6,000 megawatt hours of electricity in 2008 (approx £500k) will be required to buy carbon allowances to cover their emissions. The money will be repaid depending on each organisations performance which will be published in a league table. Those that hold the Standard will receive a higher ranking in the table and earn more repayments. About 5,000 UK organisations in the public and private sectors will be affected by the legislation.

More than 60 household names including Morrisons, Diageo, Hewlett-Packard and Royal Mail, have already qualified for the Standard, saving more than half a million tonnes of carbon emissions in the process.

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace, said:

The Carbon Trust Standard marks the difference between organisations that are really reducing their own emissions and those that are greenwashing customers with hollow pledges and no action. Carbon emissions urgently need to be cut and this is a good starting point. But to be truly green , business must go beyond this and significantly decarbonise their supply chain.