Study: UK Businesses Could Save $10.5 billion with Efficiency Measures

A new report released by Water Resources Action Programme (WRAP), a government-backed think tank in the U.K., predicts that U.K. businesses could save as much as £6.4 billion (or $10.5 billion approximately) by "embracing resource efficiency measures." The research conducted by the Stockholm Environment Institute argues that if all raw materials are used as efficiently as possible, recycling is promoted and measures are taken to prolong the life of products, it could deliver up to a tenth of the country's short-term emissions while saving 254 million tons of CO2 over 10 years, and... costing the economy nothing!

It further goes on to state that if households use their resources efficiently and products (especially electronics) through to their end of life, it can save a collective £47.3 billion a year. That's roughly  $7.8 billion. Yeah.

So ... hear, hear U.S. businesses. And consumers. And all the naysayers who feel a sustainable economy cannot develop without extreme cost to everyone. While this isn't the first report of its kind, it's certainly one of the first to show numerically that sustainability can be achieved at little or at least no more cost than with what businesses and households operate already.