The Carbon Trust Standard essentially requires an organisation to calculate its carbon footprint (including transport), demonstrate absolute or relative reduction in carbon emissions by more than 2.5 percent per year, and demonstrate good carbon management.

If a company fails to register by the required deadline it could receive a fine of £5,000, plus an additional £500 per day, until it is successfully registered on the scheme.

Where an annual report is submitted late, the fine looks as though it could be £5,000 + £0.05 per tonne of allocated allowances per working day

Where submitted carbon emission details are more than 5% variation from actual, a fine of £40 per tonne of allocated annual allowances (compared to £12 per tonne of first phase allowance costs).

The published CRC league table aims to provide a strong financial and reputational incentive for participants to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The league table will enable businesses, consumers, clients and the media to identify the annual CO2 reduction performance of all participants in the scheme. Participants will need to ascertain how various league table positions could impact on the organisation’s brand. Several factors should be taken into consideration:

As part of the carbon reduction commitment, the Environment Agency will publish publicly accessible league tables of participants performance at the end of each year.

In addition to the published league table positions for organisations within the carbon reduction commitment, the scheme will also publish the responses to three questions:

1. Does your organisation disclose long-term carbon emission reduction targets?
2. Does your organisation disclose carbon emissions performance against these targets?

The early action metrics form 100% of the league table assessment criteria during the first year of the carbon reduction commitments scheme, and a significant percentage of the second and third years. In order to acheive the Early Action Metrics, most CRC participants will need to implement Automatic Meter Reading equipment and obtain the Carbon Trust Standard (CTS)*, or equivalent.

A significant subsidiary is any part of a larger organisation that in itself consumed more than 6000 MWh of half hourly electricity during 2008. In this circumstance, the significant subsidiary may be able to enter into the carbon reduction commitment scheme in isolation from the rest of its parent or group organisation.

whilst the carbon reduction commitments does not officially start until April 2010, there is still a large amount of work that many organisations may have to do prior to that date.

Identify organisational structure

Organisations will be required to provide evidence pack's that will include:

The details of the organisation
Annual energy consumption throughout the organisation
Details of early action metric throughout the organisation
Details of growth metric throughout the organisation
As above for all significant subsidiaries
Structural records, data records and special events

2008 -- the period from January 2008 to December 2008 will be used to identify which non-energy intensive organisations in the UK have consumed more than 6,000 MWh of half hourly metered electricity.

July 2009 - The Environment Agency issued letters to the billing address of all half hourly metered properties toi make them aware of the Carbon Reduction Commitment.