A survey of 400 organisations in the UK qualifying for the carbon reduction commitment (CRC), has found that organisations are not ready for the April 2010 deadline.
The survey comes out on the day that communities secretary John Denham, outlined his vision for radically enhancing the role of councils to drive low carbon living. In a speech to a conference on local action for climate change, Denham said strong leadership, clear vision and ambition from councils could reduce carbon emissions by millions of tonnes each year.
But research suggests that organisations in both the private and public sectors need to do more to meet the new legislation.
The research, commissioned by business software firm SAP, found that only one third of UK organisations are fully prepared for the CRC, despite it being just months away - 20% have not even started planning or have no idea what measures they need to take.
While a 77% majority of UK enterprises perceive the CRC to be an opportunity to improve their carbon footprint, under half have employed the necessary IT systems to enable this improvement.
Simon Godfrey, sustainability champion at SAP UK, said public bodies need to take a more disciplined approach. "We need proper project management, with milestones and real, measurable outcomes," he said.
"We also need responsibility for sustainability to sit on the management board. That is the only place from which it can be led."
He also said that research findings highlight a worryingly low level of preparedness for the CRC. If organisations want to perform well in the league tables they need a comprehensive carbon management system in place to be able to easily collect, gather and analyse data pertaining to their carbon emissions, he said.
Organisations and firms still have time to address these issues, said Godfrey, but clear ownership and effective IT is needed if organisations are to turn the CRC from an obligation into an opportunity.
