Thursday, November 5, 2009
How to make your company sustainable
This is a follow up from the article by Anna Clark about the benefits of companies going green from greeneconomypost.com.
There are many steps a company can take to sustainability such as; conserve energy and resources in the workplace, and in product manufacturing. Comply with all the necessary environmental regulations. Carbon emissions offset programs. Use of clean energy and natural resources are just a few.
Anna Clark, President of Earthpeople lists five stages companies can be classified under as sustainability advances in corporate culture:
Awareness: Company becomes aware that environmental concerns are permeating discourse, though sustainability as a value is absent from corporate culture.
Resistive: Company becomes aware of its own environmental impact of doing business, but demonstrates no commitment to environmental responsibility and possibly some reaction against it.
Legalistic: Company strictly focuses on compliance to minimum environmental regulations, with no commitment to raising standards for conservation or energy efficiency.
Reactive: Company recognizes strategic value of sustainability opportunities, but pursues only opportunities that do not create new risks.
Strategic: Company uses proactive approach to sustainability opportunities and evaluates the impact of sustainability initiatives on the long-term value of the enterprise.
Clark states that by simply adopting a pro-environment policy, your company can generate profits, provide positive social impact and reduce environmental impact. She states this as, the triple bottom line–“a paradigm that weighs a company’s social and environmental contributions along with its financials as a measure of success.”
The cost of going green should be looked at as an investment. A little bit of spending now will result in future financial gain for your company, while benefiting the environment. It is important to have an understanding of what you are spending and how it will be energy efficient.
There are many benefits your company can receive from this and the ROI of going can be exponential. This can lead the way to building relationships, increasing sales, company exposure, more qualified job candidates and a better future, all while benefiting the environment.
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