A study has revealed that half of small and medium sized enterprises are unaware of how their business impacts on the environment, which has led to SMEs being hit by fines of around £2.4m for pollution and environmental damage in 2007.

The government survey by has revealed that half of small and medium sized enterprises are unaware of how their business impacts on the environment, which has led to SMEs being hit by fines of around £2.4m for pollution and environmental damage in 2007.

The survey by www.NetRegs.gov.uk, an environmental legislation guidance website set up by the UK's environmental regulators, including Scottish Environment Protection Agency, has found that the majority of smaller businesses look to their local authority for advice - putting the onus on local business influencer's to know where to direct them for this kind of guidance.

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However, the survey also has found that UK SMEs are making estimated savings of up to £58m a year by using the NetRegs website to improve their environmental compliance and practices.

NetRegs commissioned environmental consultants EFTEC to assess how much SMEs are saving through improving their awareness of environmental legislation. The results show that each SME that receives NetRegs' free regular email alerts that keeps them up-to-date with regulations and good practice is already saving on average £2,615 per year by reducing time spent reviewing legislation and benefiting from advice on compliance. For those SMEs that log on to the website every week, this rises to £5,296 a year.

(GK/JM)