Going green makes good business sense

by By Jennifer White
"Building a sustainable business isn't just desirable: it's imperative." Gail Brownell, Environment and Sustainability Manager, Agilent Technologies. Voted into the "Global 100: Most Sustainable Corporations in the World."
 
LYONS - Many of us are aware of the altruistic reasons for reducing our environmental impact, but did you know that "going green" also makes good business sense as well?
 
Fifteen years ago Robert Bringer, the vice president of Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, 3M Corporation, stated in an address to Yale University, "Business interests have now merged with environmental interests. Forwardlooking companies are now building the environmental issue into their strategies. Forward-looking companies are starting now to make investments in research and development that will make their facilities and products more environmentally sound. Many of the research objectives necessary to achieve this goal will also lead to lower costs, higher quality, more marketable products, fewer liabilities, better employee morale, and enhanced corporate reputation. Companies who do not include the environmental issue in their strategy risk losing their competitive position in the long run."
 
Discussions of exponential population growth and resource depletion are seeping into boardrooms, in part because CEOs are recognizing that there are finite raw resources on this planet that can be converted into tennis shoes, drinking water, lumber and fax machines, (a.k.a. profit). There's also a shrinking amount of land upon which we can pile manufacturing and product waste, as well as tightening regulations about what can be put in landfills and the atmosphere. Fines for disposal and emissions will increase and someday shoppers will come to expect, as a simple matter of course, products that (as in nature) don't generate any waste or pollution. Increased "producer responsibility" and "true cost accounting" (which takes into consideration the process and "price" of environmental damage and health issues associated with a product's entire life-cycle) will soon level the playing field and make green products more affordable and desirable for manufacturer and customer alike.
 
When we spew toxic chemicals into the air and water, that also jeopardizes the "natural capital" upon which our lives and businesses depend. Some of the irreplaceable environmental services we rely upon are also in an endangered state, as the mysterious drop in the number of honeybees in the U.S. has illustrated. According to Zac Browning, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation, every third bite of food we eat is dependent upon pollination, which is an unintended consequence far beyond economics. Until now we've been guided by outdated principles of business that boast as much forethought as burning the furniture in our living rooms to heat our houses.
 
By embracing corporate social and environmental responsibility, companies can also become magnets for loyal employees, members and customers who share and appreciate those values. Making (and keeping) those public commitments and providing a non-toxic workplace endears businesses to their community, not to mention the fact that a happy employee is a productive employee. As Bennett, Freierman & George point out in Corporate Realities & Environmental Truths, "With environmental issues, everyone who breathes your air or does business with you is a customer. Treat them right, and your company has its best chances of gaining a competitive edge and prospering under any economic conditions." As awareness grows about the relationship between industry behavior and issues such as climate change, more and more customers in both national and international marketplaces will be "voting with their dollars" and choosing companies that are setting themselves apart.
 
These practical strategies also anticipate the inevitable shift in legislation and regulations and help avoid timepressed, costly adjustments down the road. We are already seeing increases in these mandates including one in various stages that will ban the traditional incandescent bulb in California, Australia, Chile and the European Union. Cities and business around the world are also setting clear examples. Boulder recently became the first municipality in the nation to tax its own energy use to pay for GHG emissions reductions programs, and Whole Foods has offset the energy used in every one of its 160 stores with wind power. Earlier this month Citigroup, Inc. announced that it will allocate $50 billion over the next 10 years to address climate change through investing in the growth of alternative energy and clean technology, and scores of others have already incorporated environmental sustainability into their strategic plans.
 
Stepping up and doing the "right thing" can increase company revenues while simultaneously making it easier to sleep at night and look our children in the eye as we tuck them in. No matter what your motivations, opportunities abound for creating a sustainable future and only time will tell who emerges as the visionary leaders in this burgeoning field.
 
Jennifer White is the executive director of a national nonprofit The Simplicity Forum, as well as the co-founder and director of education for the Boulder-based ConservED Project. She lives in Lyons and performs in the acoustic duo Sferes & White.