Four specialists at global consultancy firm Environ have been accredited as assessors for the Carbon Trust standard, making them four of only 25 assessors in the country.
Debbie Hobbs, James Patterson, Gordon Lee and Suki Gilliland will now offer certification services to clients on behalf of the Carbon Trust.

The Carbon Trust Standard replaces the former Energy Efficiency Accreditation scheme and is awarded to organisations that measure, manage and reduce their carbon footprint.

Currently, only 70 organisations in the UK are certified to the Carbon Trust Standard.

Achieving the standard is officially recognised as an 'Early Action Metric' for the Carbon Reduction Commitment legislation, which comes into force in 2010.

Debbie Hobbs, principal at Environ said: 'Organisations that achieve the standard are not only taking real action to reduce their direct impact on climate change, but they are also helping to prepare themselves for a major piece of legislation, the Carbon Reduction Commitment. The implications of this new law are not yet sufficiently understood and will impact on many unsuspecting businesses.

'Those that are ahead of the game and secure the Carbon Trust Standard accreditation will boost their organisation's position in the CRC league table and reduce the number of carbon credits they will need to buy, a major benefit in the current economic climate,' she added.

To achieve certification against the standard, companies need to meet three requirements:

1. Measurement: of key greenhouse gas emissions e.g. electricity and fuel used onsite and fuel in vehicle use.

2. Good management: of carbon performance backed up with evidence e.g. investment in new equipment, maintenance programmes and staff training.

3. Reduction: the organisation must be able to show emissions reduction during the last year -e.g. on a total emissions basis or another measure such as emissions/£m turnover.