Andrew Long, co-founder of Ten Lifestyle Management, which supports people who want to live more sustainably

Meeting environmental objectives is vital to a company's reputation. We won't always be in recession and when we come out of the current climate, green concerns are certain to be back at the top of the social and business agenda. An authentic commitment to sustainability has the potential to set you up as a leader within your industry.

Strong environmental credentials make good business sense. You will save your organisation money, fulfil your commitment to sustainability and contribute to a more productive workplace. But it's important to think beyond simple changes to the infrastructure and get the whole business involved in credible and engaging measures to reduce your overall impact on the environment.

We should all be recycling and switching to low-energy light bulbs, and a business with five or more company cars can save up to £5,000 a year through more efficient driving. Encouraging staff to take public transport, or even better cycle to work, will save them money, help reduce the company's carbon emissions and promote a healthier, more motivated and productive workplace.

Cutting back on the energy your business uses will save you money in the long run as well as having a positive effect on the environment. Ensuring that every employee switches off their computer before leaving the office, for example, can cut your power bills dramatically—switching off just 10 PCs could save £300 a year. Making sensible, environmentally conscious decisions is no longer an "opt-out" activity. No

Robert Coleman, managing director of US Offshore, a consultancy firm

My response to recession is what every survivor has done in other downturns: renegotiate supplier deals, eliminate unnecessary travel, reduce waste and so on. You might consider this merely common sense, even good business practice. Yet BERR describes precisely these tactics as "green".

This is the tip of a misinformation iceberg where everything good is labelled green to brainwash us into believing that anything labelled as such must be good. Witness the latest eco-frenzy over "green collar". Even so, verbal sleight of hand is one thing, promoting money-pits is another. In green-collar world, the mantra remains "sustainability".

Strangely, although "green" enterprise will undoubtedly continue to provide generous rewards for on-message social entrepreneurs, without public funding it appears that their businesses are as sustainable as pig breeding in Mecca.

The Eden Project, the über-green flagship owned by the Eden Trust, was launched in 2000 with a £43m bung from the Millennium Commission. And this is considered a success story?

Now we learn that domestic energy bills are being increased to subsidise
so-called green energy. Confirmation that, wherever there's a green agenda, there's some parasite with his hand out. Greenness has little to do with business survival in good times, let alone now.

Be certain, though, the taxes of those who survive the recession will be used to sustain the green myth. You can be sure there will be no money coming in the opposite direction.