I’ve just been interviewing Paula Widdowson, Director of CSR for Northern Foods for book#2. Their CSR efforts saved them £2m last year, and they expect £4m this year and £11m the year after. Less enlightened companies are still saying “we can’t afford to do this in a recession!” How can they afford not to?

Great tip from Paula: Northern Foods colour code their machines with small stickers. Red means “leave this on”, Amber says “If you think this should/could be switched off, then ask” and Green says “If this isn’t doing anything, then switch it off”. For one of their factories, this cost £22 to implement. Genius.