THE closing date for entries to the Lancashire Telegraph Business Awards 2006 is now just a week away. We look at a new category to be introduced into the awards this year, Best Environmental Achievement.

A MODERN business can no longer just look at profit, turnover and share prices.

Nowadays, it is just as important to look at recycling, carbon emissions and encouraging staff to cycle to work.

And as businesses move with the times, the Lancashire Telegraph Business Awards are recognising this with its new environmental award category.

Judges will be looking for a company which has introduced measures resulting in a genuine improvement to the environment.

This could be a firm which has gone green' or one which has introduced the manufacture or invention of services which has helped.

Clive Memmott, chief executive at Business Link Lancashire, said firms which innovate in this field are leading the way and should be rewarded.

He said: "Businesses have a moral and social obligation in this day and age to be environmentally aware. Those that innovate and lead the way with an excellent approach to managing their environmental impact provide an outstanding example for others - and as such should be rewarded.

"Thousands of pounds each year are wasted due to a lack of consideration for energy efficiency, water usage and recycling, when only the simplest of measures need to be taken to avoid such waste.

"All businesses should be implementing strategies to minimise environmental damage as part of their corporate social responsibility plan.

"By applying sustainable development policies every business can demonstrate its commitment to the social and economic well being of current and future generations."

According to Envirowise, a government-supported service which gives businesses tips on how to reduce waste and increase profits by helping the environ-ment, even in 1994 just 20 per cent of firms recognised the link between business and green issues.

Now in 2006, closer to 50 per cent see the environment as a critical issue. In the North West alone more than 1.6m tonnes of waste is produced annually by retailers and wholesalers, costing the industry as a whole £360m each year.

And Dr Garry Felgate, director of delivery and external relations for the Carbon Trust, an organisation which helps firms reduce their carbon emissions, said: "Firms and other organisations are responsible for up to 45 per cent of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions, so it's crucial that local enterprises investigate the many ways they can reduce their carbon footprint.

"Employees are also clamouring for their firms to become more environmentally responsible: according to research from the Carbon Trust, 85 per cent of the workforce want to help their companies cut carbon."