British Gas - Zero carbon?

January 30th 2008

British Gas was today slammed for misleading consumers in adverts for their so-called Zero Carbon tariff. They launched this tariff with much fanfare last year as the "greenest domestic energy tariff" in the UK.

Ahem... we'd beg to differ...

The ASA upheld the complaint made against the company, concluding that the advert could be misleading in suggesting their electricity supply was carbon-free. And with over 6 million customers, British Gas are not exactly setting the world alight with their spending on building new renewables – the stuff that actually makes a difference in reducing carbon emissions.

Last year British Gas launched a ‘green’ arm to their business and called it New Energy (you've probably heard that term somewhere before). They can pinch our name, but with spending of just £7.12 per customer on completing new renewable projects last year, they’re clearly not putting those record £500 million profits for 2007 (a five-fold increase on 2006) into much new green energy.

We've just calculated each suppliers investment in renewables last year (now published on www.whichgreen.org )... so now you can see where the money you spend on your electricity bill is really going for every supplier.

And the answer?

Not a lot of it on building new renewable energy unless you’re with Ecotricity…

You can view the full ASA adjudication here.