Environment
With a growing awareness of climate change and the damage that various retail practices can cause to the environment, retailers are facing greater pressure to become greener.
Ofgem
Energy Companies relationships with small business is an issue of concern for many ACS members. ACS assisted Ofgem, the regulator for the energy sector, on their recent probe into energy supply to the sector.
As a result of the probe, Ofgem created new safeguards for micro businesses, which come into force on 18 January. Further information on these remedies can be found by in the ACS Advice section.
However, while welcoming this probe, ACS is concerned that they do not cover enough businesses. We are continuing our campaigning, calling for:
- The new safeguards for micro businesses to be extended to all businesses, in particular those with over 30 full time employers as identified by Ofgem in their probe as needing protecting
- A new body to deal solely with businesses complaints regarding energy supply
- An end to all rolling contracts
Download the ACS consultation response here:
Ofgem Consultation
Download the Ofgem Remedies document here: Energy Supply Probe - Proposed Retail Market Remedies July 09
If you have a concern regarding your energy supplier please contact jenny.brown@acs.org.uk
Waste and Recycling
This has been an area of particular legislative activity, particularly for the European Parliament. ACS makes sure we are a vocal participant in any consultation on European directives. For more information with how to comply with waste legislation including WEEE, Animal By-Products etc go to the Advice section.
Batteries
The Batteries Directive is European legislation which aims to reduce the environmental impact of batteries through increased recycling, more stringent measures on what chemicals batteries can be made of and improved labelling. Retailers will have a new duty to take back batteries from consumers in order that battery producers can collect them for recycling. ACS successfully campaigned for an exemption for those who sell under 32kg of batteries per year.
For further information click here
Download the ACS Battery submissions here:
Battery Consultation 2009
Carrier Bags
ACS campaigns against the compulsory charging for carrier bags. Convenience stores will be disproportionately affected by a charge, despite not being the main creator of carrier bag waste.
ACS is working with DEFRA on a toolkit for retailers in England to help retailers to voluntarily promote reducing carrier bag use. Once these materials are finalised they will be available to download from this site.
Wales
The Welsh Environment Minister Jane Davidson has signalled her intention to introduce a charge on single use carrier bags in 2011. ACS is campaigning against this measure.
We are also campaigning to ensure that if they charge is introduced, it does not create unnecessary burdens on retailers. Jane Davidson has already indicated that retailers will be able to donate any proceeds to a charity of their chose, which is something ACS has pushed for.
The consultation response is available here:
ACS Response to the Draft Single Use Carrier Bag Charge
For latest news contact jenny.brown@acs.org.uk
Download the ACS submission to the WAG consultation here: 
WAG Carrier Bag Charge Consultation Sept 09
Light Bulbs
The 1st January 2009 marked the next phase of the voluntary phase out of energy inefficient light bulbs by the UK retail sector.
On 8th December there was a vote in the EU on the European Commission's proposals for a regulation to progressively phase out incandescent bulbs, starting in 2009 and finishing at the end of 2012. By enforcing the regulation of switching to energy saving bulbs, it is estimated that EU citizens will save close to 40 TWh. This is roughly the electricity consumption of Romania, or of 11 million European households, or the equivalent of the yearly output of 10 power stations of 500 megawatts. It will lead to a reduction of about 15 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
Consumers will still have the choice between long-life compact fluorescent lamps that currently yield the highest energy savings (up to 75% less energy than incandescent lamps), or efficient halogen lamps that are fully equivalent to incandescent bulbs in terms of light quality, providing between 25% and 50% energy savings.
The regulation will now be scrutinised by the European Parliament. It is scheduled for formal adoption by the Commission in March 2009.
The regulations formalise the work that ACS, alongside other retailers in the UK, have already been doing. ACS is signed up to a voluntary agreement with the Department of Environment to phase out the sale of energy inefficient light bulbs with power wattage of over 60.