Horticultural businesses have taken 15,000 family cars off the road last year. Not by fireballing the four-wheel machines, but by reducing their ‘carbon footprints’.

Horti-business reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 50,000 tonnes last year - the equivalent annual saving of taking 15,000 family cars off the road. The results come largely via an NFU scheme encouraging energy-efficiency, according to the union.

The NFU Horticultural Climate Change Levy Scheme also claims to have helped growers from the protected crops sector save £6.5 million in the process, after committing to carbon reduction targets.

The 120 businesses that signed up to the scheme cut energy use by more than four percent, the NFU reported. This saved the businesses £5m on their fuel bills, and secured the 80 percent climate change levy discount worth a further £1.5m. This represented an average annual saving of nearly £42,000 per site.

“Carbon equals cost,” noted NFU horticultural adviser Chris Hartfield. “This is a terrific example of how the NFU can work with the industry to cut CO2 emissions and in turn achieve significant cost savings. These achievements are just for the first year and we are confident the industry can make further year-on-year savings before the current scheme ends in 2013.”

To get the 80 percent levy reduction, growers had to sign a Climate Change Agreement and then prove they had reduced their relative energy consumption. Businesses will have to reduce their energy consumption by 12 percent over a six-year period to maintain the CCL reduction.

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