Emissions Trading Low On South Island Business Radar

South Island businesses admit to having a poor understanding of the Emission Trading Scheme and very few companies are actively developing strategies around it, according to a survey by accounting firms Polson Higgs and McCulloch and Partners.

Only 6% of South Island firms professed to having a very good knowledge of  the scheme, whereas 34% said they had a poor understanding, 24% a fair understanding and 36% a satisfactory understanding.

Phillip Roth, partner, Polson Higgs Christchurch,  said that as economic conditions deteriorated in late 2008 there was a large drop in the proportion of businesses reporting that environment issues were significant to their business.

“However, as optimism has returned, environmental issues have assumed greater significance again, even if some of these issues, particularly the Emission Trading Scheme, are poorly understood,” he said

Only 3% of the firms surveyed said that they had developed a clear emissions strategy with another 12% working on a strategy. This left 55% of firms with no strategy and a further 30% believing  they did not need a strategy

“While the environmental issues have gained renewed traction among business leaders, this had yet to translate into firm strategies.

“As a business adviser, we believe that environmental issues will impact on the majority of businesses and the leaders of these businesses need to start developing clear strategies to lead their organisations through what is a very real challenge,” he said.

The survey was carried out on-line with 79 respondents from 315 South Island businesses approached. Companies with a turnover between $1 million and $5 million (37.5 per cent) made up the majority of respondents.

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