“THIS has nothing to do with corporate social responsibility, going green is good business sense.”

This was the key message from Peter Pledger, chief executive of South London Business, to business leaders from its exclusive Celsius Club, which gathered at the Brit Oval on October 6 for its first major environmental business event.

He was speaking to a half empty hall as senior executives who had paid £35-a-head to attend had gone in to their offices instead to deal with the fall-out of the financial meltdown of black Monday.

Picking up on this, Mr Pledger pointed out in the challenging times ahead environmental changes are even more important for businesses because they can contribute directly to reducing costs and making companies more competitive.

Andrew Jenkins, business director in BT’s Workstyle team, outlined the massive savings to be gained by flexible working.

He said on average it reduced the need for office space by 30 per cent and in BT it reduced paper usage by 80 per cent as all files can be remotely accessed.

It will also increase efficiency by up to 20 per cent, and along the way reduce CO2 emissions, unnecessary journeys, waste and a fistful of other environmental problems.

He said changing the mindset of staff was an initial but not a long-term obstacle, as people come to terms with the fact “work is something you do, not somewhere you go”.

Ben Murray, director of Carbon Smart, said: “looking at reducing your carbon footprint is starting to become an economic necessity.”

The company, based in Borough, has advised hundreds of firms on how to reduce their footprint — and costs.

Mr Murray suggests companies to go after the easy stuff first and said lots of environmental changes pay for themselves within a year.

Debbie Clements of Envibe, drawing on her experience of helping more than 650 Croydon businesses in the past three years, gave a wealth of practical tips on saving money and going green.

Sean Duggan, group editor for News Shopper’s sister titles in south-west London, talked about how the company had made rapid environmental progress over the past year and in the process saved money on water, waste and energy.

He also outlined the Green Guardian project, which is the largest environmental awareness campaign in south London, reaching more than one million people each week.

Mr Duggan also invited businesses interested in publicising their environmental commitment to contact him to discuss how they can work together on next year’s campaign and help drive forward environmental change in the region.