“We are seeing less of an uptake of green energy from businesses”

We Spoke to Oliver Kruc, Sales Channel Manager at British Gas Business about the cost of the pandemic on net zero 

The energy crisis is preventing businesses from going green. 

This is what Oliver Kruc, Sales Channel Manager at British Gas told us.  

He said: ‘When their energy bills go from one year to the next – doubling, tripling, quadrupling in some cases. All of a sudden, the presence and pressure of incorporating sustainability becomes a bit more challenging when your costs increase by that much overnight. 

‘Across the board, we are seeing less of an uptake of green energy products from businesses purely because cost is still largely above what it has been pre-pandemic or even pre-energy crisis a couple of years ago.’ 

Oliver told us that recent legislation pushing net zero further into the future shows that the government is mindful of the costs that businesses have to bear. 

He said: ‘I think that what it does do is show that the government is starting to recognise that some of these costs aren’t really affordable today for lots of businesses. 

‘None of these [sustainable technologies] are cheap for people to invest in and install and it gives the community a little bit more breathing space to think. Hopefully, we’ve got more time for some of these technologies to reduce in cost, to become cheaper.’ 

But businesses are being pushed by stakeholders to think more about sustainability. 

Oliver said: ‘Over the summer, we surveyed 300 business leaders and one-third of them told us that they’re under increasing pressure to take environmental action from stakeholders.  

‘We’re starting to see customers inquire more about sustainability.  

‘And businesses are starting to recognise their customers are now expecting or requiring their supply chain to be operating with a certain level of sustainability consciousness.  

‘So the ability of a business to deliver their sustainability goals has a direct impact on their profitability.’