Round table: Time to step back from the carbon neutral arms race?

Businesses across the Midlands are feeling increasingly vulnerable over issues of sustainability, according to one business leader the region.

Speaking at a round table hosted and sponsored by Freeths in Birmingham, Jason Richards, partner at the law firm said that firms are becoming more and more concerned with reputation management.

He said: “While larger companies can afford the investment in tech to meet Government regulations, it’s becoming harder for SMEs to keep up and tick the boxes they think they need to.

“Businesses have to be ambitious and think in the longer term if they want to show off their sustainability credentials. It’s very much the case that some companies are still only dipping their toes in the water with this.”

The panel of leading business figures from across the East and West Midlands discussed what it means to be a sustainable organisation.

Simon Russell from Aston Manor Cider said: “One of big challenges facing companies want ting be more sustainable is that is takes serious investment – in the short, medium or long term. They should ask themselves: how much can we do and at what pace? There seems to be an arms race to become carbon neutral at the moment, and it appears to me that some businesses or organisations are trying to work this out on the back of an envelope. We need to know we’re backing the right technology for the future as there’s a huge element of risk involved.

A fuller transcript of the round table will appear on TheBusinessDesk.com next week.