Funeral directors and the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme

The NAFD’s Environmental Advisory Group has been reviewing the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme to determine whether funeral directors need to register by the end of September to avoid a fine.

The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (previously known as the Carbon Reduction Commitment) is a new, mandatory energy saving and carbon emissions reduction scheme for the UK and is designed to act as an incentive to improve energy efficiency and to help large private and public sector organisations save money through reduced energy bills.

Whether a firm qualifies to register depends on its electricity consumption. If this was more than 6,000Mwh of electricity per year and was measured through half hourly meters during 2008 then the company must register. Putting this in context, any company using this much electricity in a year would be facing a bill for over £500,000!

If a company does qualify to register it will need to monitor its emissions and purchase allowances to emit carbon dioxide (CO2). The more CO2 the organisation emits, the more allowances it will need to purchase, so there is a direct incentive to reduce emissions.

Under the current regulations the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme does not apply to any organisation that did not have settled half hourly meters during 2008, and it is therefore highly unlikely that any funeral director or supplier business consumed sufficient electricity to require half hourly metering in 2008.

In the future the NAFD’s Environmental Advisory Group expects the scheme to apply to more organisations as the ceiling is lowered in line with the EU low carbon directive.

For further information on the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme visit the Business and Industry section of the Environmental Agency website at http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk..