For many small business owners, making their business more environmentally friendly has become much more important in recent years. However, in the tough economy of today, businesses have a delicate balancing act between caring for the environment and the survival of their business so that they can provide for their family. Ultimately, at the moment, the priority for most of them is struggling to keep the business alive and being green comes a distant second.

The coalition Government has promised to be the ‘greenest-ever’. Early indicators of this have been good, with the quick announcement that they would not support another runway at Heathrow proving that they were at least prepared to do things differently to the previous Government.. Critics have suggested that the ‘greenest-ever’ tag is a completely unmeasurable claim that means little.

A report this week by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has stated that the Government needs to provide more support for small businesses that want to be greener. Business owners show great enthusiasm for green measures but without adequate financial measure to support them, they are unlikely to participate.

To achieve the tough carbon emission targets that have been set for the UK (20% less by 2020), the FSB advises the Government to look at expanding the current loan scheme available to small businesses and provide incentives to make their workplace greener. In their opinion, it is not currently economically viable for small businesses to embrace green investment.

At the moment, small businesses have access to a great 0% loan scheme for energy saving equipment. Repayments are made on a ‘pay as you save’ basis, allowing them to make genuine savings. However, this scheme is not widely publicised and the FSB recommends greater exposure.

The FSB has also offered a number of recommendations concerning improving the energy efficiency of workplaces. Because nearly half of all small business accommodation is rented, neither the landlord or business currently has much incentive to improve. The believe that either the banks or the energy and construction industries in the private sector should be incentivised to pay the upfront costs of making buildings more energy efficient. They also recommend ‘pay as you save’ repayments for small businesses through energy bills so neither the landlord or business is burdened by cost.

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