Carbon Trust
The Carbon Trust was developed and launched during first Blair Administration (1997-2001) as part of the development of the Climate Change Levy (CCL), a tax on business energy use that still operates today. The original intention was that the Carbon Trust would be funded by around £50m pa of tax revenue generated from the Levy to help businesses reduce energy costs and therefore offset the additional cost of paying the CCL. The establishment of the Carbon Trust was announced in the 2000 White Paper "Climate Change - the UK Programme" (Cmd 4913). It was launched alongside  the introduction of the CCL in April 2001. The Carbon Trust was conceived as a business-led publicly funded organisation at arms length from government. The early concept, design and governance was carried out in close consultation with business. Senior officials from the Devolved Administrations and the UK department (the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions) would sit on the Trust's Board, where non-business non-executive Directors were in the majority. However the chair, CEO and most of the executive team were appointed from the private sector. Remit and initial programmes. The Trust began its work  with three core activities: The need to recycle CCL revenues back to business by reducing energy costs through energy efficiency was a key early driver of the Carbon Trust's work. Its first act was to take over the government's £17m pa Energy Efficiency Best Practice Programme (EEBPP) in 2002, a UK-wide information-based measure providing independent advice and support on existing energy efficient technologies and energy management practices. The Trust reconfigured the EEBPP to improve its focus and services to business under a new branding called "Action Energy". The Carbon Trust also initiated work on  new and emerging low carbon technologies using a range of programmes and measures including traditional research, development and demonstration support to supporting early stage companies developing new technologies and practices. These activities came under the banner of the "Low Carbon Innovation Programme" Current work. The Carbon Trust presents itself as global organisation, with offices in London (Head Office), Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast, Beijing, Mexico City, Amsterdam, Pretoria, Singapore and Washington DC. Services. Business advice. The Carbon Trust looks at current and future sustainability challenges and works with business and organisations to develop sustainable strategies to deliver savings. Carbon footprinting, verification and  Carbon Trust standard. The Carbon Trust provides voluntary carbon certification services and carbon labelling schemes – it verifies organisation and product carbon footprint data and provides marks of quality to organisations to demonstrate standards have been met. Developing clean technology. The Carbon Trust works with governments, innovators and corporates with the aim of accelerating the commercialisation of low carbon technologies, and leads projects to deliver commercial partnerships and develop low carbon technologies. It is particularly active in the areas of offshore wind, marine energy, fuel cell development and industrial energy efficiency. One such project is the Offshore Wind Accelerator, which is  aimed at reducing the cost of wind power through projects focused in the North Sea. The Offshore Wind Accelerator is a partnership between industry and governments. Programmes and Innovations. The Carbon Trust provides analysis on sustainability issues to help businesses, investors and policy makers with their roles in reducing carbon and saving energy. It works with companies and governments across the world. Carbon footprinting, verification and Carbon Trust standard. Carbon Trust standards. The Carbon Trust runs a series of environmental standards that certify measurement and reduction. Currently these cover carbon, water and waste and have been awarded to hundreds of  leading companies and organisations across the world. In June 2008 the Carbon Trust introduced the Carbon Trust Carbon Standard to address what it describes as business greenwash. The Carbon Trust Carbon Standard is only awarded to companies and organisations who measure and reduce their carbon emissions year on year. Examples of organisations who have held the Carbon Standard include Sky, Aldi, Eurotunnel, Bupa, Pricewaterhousecoopers, Samsung Electronics, Angus Council, Capital & Regional, O2, RWE npower, Credit Suisse, and the Scottish Government. In February 2013 the Carbon Trust introduced the Carbon Trust Water Standard to recognise those companies reducing their water use year  on year. The first four companies to receive the Water Standard were Sainsbury's, Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd, Sunlight Services Group, and Branston. In July 2013 the Carbon Trust introduced the Carbon Trust Waste Standard. In November 2013 the waste standard was awarded to the first wave of organisations, which included the Football Association, Renishaw plc, Whitbread, Pricewaterhousecoopers and AkzoNobel Decorative Paints. These last three became the first in the world to gain the triple crown of reaching the carbon, water and waste standard. In 2015 the Carbon Trust launched the Carbon Trust Supply Chain Standard to look at carbon  footprints across the supply chain. It is the world's first independent certification for organisations that are measuring, managing and reducing greenhouse gas (CO2e) emissions in their supply chains. Carbon footprint label. The Carbon Trust helps companies to measure the carbon emissions associated with their products (embodied emissions) and also provides a label for these products carbon footprint. Measuring the embodied emissions of products enables reductions to be identified and achieved across the supply chain. The label demonstrates a commitment by the product owner to reduce that footprint every two years. The Carbon Reduction Label was introduced in March 2007 . Examples of products that have featured the carbon footprint label are Amazon Devices, Evian water, Tetra Pak packaging, Kingsmill bread, Quorn foods, Silver Spoon sugar, Walkers crisps, a range of own brand products in Tesco supermarkets, Halifax (HBOS) bank accounts, Dyson airblades, Marshalls building products, Quaker oats, Lafarge cement, and Pompeian Olive Oil. The standards behind carbon labelling are now formally recognised through the PAS 2050 developed by the Carbon Trust in conjunction with BSI and Defra. This methodology is now gaining international acceptance following its launch in October 2008. However, currently this standard has been revised to the PAS  2050: 2011 version, but the Carbon Trust has not received UKAS accreditation.