More leisure businesses are opting to cut their energy costs rather than staff costs in order to combat the impact of the economic slowdown, according to the latest YouGov research for the Carbon Trust.

The survey, conducted on 857 senior manager, showed that nearly a third (31 per cent) said encouraging staff to be more energy efficient and to reduce waste was one of the first three things they would do to cut costs. These measures outranked redundancies (17 per cent), freezes on recruitment (24 per cent) and giving below inflation pay rises (24 per cent).

According to the Carbon Trust leisure businesses are wasting nearly £250,000 a day on poor energy efficiency and that companies could lower their annual carbon emissions by 18 per cent – reducing their collective annual energy bill by £90m.

Overall, UK businesses could collectively save nearly £2.5bn in the next 12 months and the potential for small and medium companies is £1.3bn alone.

Hugh Jones, solutions director at the Carbon Trust, said: "The statistics show evidence that if companies are starting to feel the bite from the slowdown, the first place to look for cost savings should be their energy bill. There are literally millions of pounds going out of the window every day.

"We're talking about money that could be banked simply by making quick and easy changes such as encouraging staff to turn off computers and lights, turning down the heating or maintaining equipment properly."

Overall large UK companies with over 250 employees, appear to already be taking action, with 33 per cent of business leaders claiming carbon reduction has gone up their agenda in the last six months, and 36 per cent have said it is beginning to rise on their agenda.

David Boomer, head of energy efficiency and climate change at the Institute of Directors (IoD), said: "IoD data confirms the findings of the Carbon Trust. Energy Efficiency is one of the most cost-effective measures that business can take to reduce operational costs and improve their competitiveness.

"The IoD's research shows that those businesses currently addressing energy efficiency have reduced their bills by 6 - 10 per cent, with savings of up to 20 per cent being achievable."

For information on cutting your energy bill contact: carbontrust.co.uk