With over 1,000 employees signed up for car-sharing schemes, BT is alerting UK businesses of all sizes to the virtues of sharing a lift to work.

In partnership with liftshare, a car-share consultancy whose clients include household names such as BP, Tesco and Ikea, the telecoms company developed the scheme for its 90,000-strong UK workforce.

Although only one in 90 of its British-based workforce has signed up so far, the contribution of 1,000 workers will make a significant difference, said BT Group's environment manager, Simon Paul.

And he stressed that the adoption of similar schemes by small and medium businesses was no less valuable in terms of environmental impact and enhanced reputation.

"There is great scope for UK companies of all sizes to implement their own" car sharing strategy, Mr Paul commented.

According to liftshare, the typical daily car-sharer cuts their annual carbon footprint by up to a tonne of CO2 emissions and saves themselves up to £1,000 on transport costs - making car-sharing a genuinely win-win solution which helps the environment and profits users too.