SmallBusinessNewz

In case you were wondering, the recession hasn't caused the average small business to either take another look at coal or replace all of its light bulbs with the latest in LED technology.  A new report indicates that businesses' environmental policies have more or less remained the same.

The Forum of Private Business polled its members, and apparently 61 percent of them haven't altered their approach to being "green."  Then all of the other people sort of canceled each other out, with 22 percent worrying less about environmentally-friendly solutions and 17 percent growing more interested.

Respondents cited a number of barriers to being green, including cost, planning issues, time, lack of support, and a lack of practicality (you can't, for example, find LED lighting in even a fraction of the stores that sell regular bulbs or the newer CFL types).

At the same time, 82 percent of small business owners who are taking action talked about doing the right thing, and reputation, saving money, and winning government contracts were other concerns.

Finally, if you're interested in what might come as a result of all this opinion-gathering, the FPB stated, "The results of the FPB's panel research were provided to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on 27 November 2009 at the latest external stakeholders meeting for its Small Emitters Project.  The project is investigating the part played by small businesses in meeting the UK's carbon reduction commitments."