The week in green numbers…

3.4 million: In square kilometers, we have this week’s new record low for Arctic sea ice. Reached on September 16, it is 18 per cent less than the previous record from 2007, and the smallest ever Arctic sea ice extent in a satellite record stretching back 33 years, according to US National Snow and Ice Data Center.

85: The percentage of people who told a global survey this week (commissioned by wind energy giant Vestas and performed by TNS Gallup) that they wanted more renewable energy.

49: The percentage of respondents to the same survey who said they would be willing to pay more for products made using renewable energy.

325: The number of kilometers being walked by between 80-100 people taking part in the Walk for Solar, a march in support of the development of a solar thermal power plant for Port Augusta, to replace the South Australian town’s outgoing coal-fired capacity.

330: The number of consecutive months – including August 2012, which the fourth-warmest August globally since 1880 – in which temperatures worldwide were above the 20th-century average, according to the US National Climatic Data Center.

120: The number of countries worldwide which had a renewable energy target in place at the beginning of 2012, according to the executive secretary of global renewable energy policy institute REN21, Christine Lins.

150: The approximate number of villagers from the Fijian village of Vunidogoloa who are relocating to drier and higher land due to sea level rise, erosion, and intensifying floods.

548,000,000: The pounds sterling amount that the UK onshore wind industry provided to the national economy in 2011, according to RenewableUK. It also added around 8,600 skilled engineering and construction jobs.

36: The number of companies out of 389 in the Global Corporate Renewable Energy Index or CREX that source 100 per cent of their energy from renewables, including Adobe Systems, Kohl’s and Whole Foods Market. A study, commissioned by Vestas and prepared by BNEF, showed that Japan’s OJI Paper is the biggest corporate user of renewable power, while German building materials company Sto was second on the list, followed by Finnish pulp and paper company UPM-Kymmene.

4-5: The percentage UK SMEs could save on their energy bills with the installation of smart meters, according to new research to be published today by British Gas and consultancy Oxford Economics.

14 billion: The pounds sterling amount that the above study estimated the whole country would save from a national rollout of smart meters, after costs. (The UK government intends to replace over 53 million gas and electricity meters in homes and businesses across the country by 2019 to give customers more accurate bills and help them reduce their energy consumption.)