I have just seen new evidence that businesses are becoming more and more interested in finding ways of cutting waste and finding increasingly  sustainable ways of using products.

Looking at the number of registrations for WRAP’s conference on the business benefits of resource efficiency at the Royal Society next week, I was pleased to see that it is heavily over subscribed and every place has gone.

I am sure that the strength of the speaker line up has a lot to do with it – they include Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, Morrisons’ Chief Executive Marc Bolland, and Will Day, the new Chair of the Sustainable Development Commission.

However, I am equally sure that the challenging economic situation is also a factor. This brings the need to cut the cost base and respond to customer demands into even sharper focus.  On the morning of the conference we will be publishing the results of new research showing the contribution greater resource efficiency can make to reducing carbon emissions and meeting climate change targets.  It is the first time this research has been done.  Having seen the early findings, I am sure that as we approach the Copenhagen negotiations, the results are likely to spark a lot of debate.

We will also be publishing the results of a YouGov survey of middle managers in FTSE 500 companies on a range of issues, including how seriously companies take the issues and potential of resource efficiency.

There was a time when some businesses baulked at the idea of “green initiatives”: there was a widely held view they must be expensive and the benefits were not clear.  I believe there is now a growing understanding of those benefits.

For those who can’t get to the Conference we will be filming the panel discussion chaired by John Humphrys and posting highlights on our website, along with the research, a summary of proceedings and presentations from the morning.  Anyone who wants to keep in touch with what WRAP is doing around resource efficiency can do so by signing up to receive our quarterly Stakeholder Briefing. 

Resource Efficiency is, I think, going to be one of the buzz terms of the future – it has real potential to make a difference and there are things we can all do to make our use of resources more sustainable.