Fighting climate change seems to be an area where even the low-hanging fruit is hard to pick. In some quarters - here for instance, people are even campaigning to stop tungsten bulbs being replaced with compact fluorescents ("Millions of Britons are finally waking up to the fact that their beloved light bulb will disappear for good after 120 years"). Is there any carbon reduction measure that wouldn't get these people's backs up?

In business, the ban on tungsten bulbs won't make a big dent on emissions of course, since most commercial premises have been lit by fluorescent tubes for a long time.

Another measure from the same source (the EU Ecodesign Regulatory Committee) that will have an impact on businesses' carbon footprint is the Regulation, adopted last month by the European Commission that will require all electronic devices to consume no more than 1 Watt by 2013. This is expected to cut the 50 terawatt-hours of electricity wasted by devices on standby in Europe each year by almost three-quarters.

There are plenty of standby devices in your average office, from computers to photocopiers, and the campaigns to get users to turn them off have not succeeded in so many cases. Much better just to take the problem away at the design stage. And less likely to cause a backlash from the flat earthers.