Sustainable WNC

Energy Efficiency Good First Step for Businesses to Fight Climate Change: Survey
By ClimateBiz.com

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 17, 2007 - - Energy efficiency is the most effective company-wide first steps CEOs can take to launch a climate change program, according to a team of environmental scientists and climate researchers.

The panel, which includes 54 fellows of the Switzer Foundation, an environmental non-profit, participated in a survey titled, “What the Scientists Know: How Business Leadership can Help Solve Climate Change.” The survey was inspired by members of the Committee of 200, a group of women business leaders.

“The survey is designed to spark a dialogue between scientists and business leaders,” said Jessica Switzer, Partner of Blue Practice Inc., which performed the survey. “We hoped to give a voice to leading U.S. scientists’ concerns and create something useful that business leaders can use to develop solutions to a very large problem facing our world economy and social situation. We couldn’t have a better audience to preview this than the Committee of 200.”

To best leverage a CEOs leadership, the scientists top rankings included: improving energy efficiency of existing operations, converting to clean and renewable energy, engaging in climate change policy discussions, consideration of climate risk in asset management and buying carbon offsets.

Carbon offsets wasn’t listed as a top priority for companies. The panel also pegged the purchase of renewable energy credits as the last corporate priority; the most popular write-in suggestion for top priority was reducing energy consumption.

Interface Inc., a modular carpet and upholstery fabric manufacturer was named as a company doing a good job of addressing greenhouse gas emissions.

“In the long term, the economy and the environment are the same thing. If it’s unenvironmental it is uneconomical. That is the rule of nature.”~ Mollie Beattie

Among the amazing developments that have been ocurring as market forces embrace the Green Revolution is the “Supply Chain Reaction”. The systemic change is further evidence that ‘business as usual’ with a bit of greenwash won’t cut it in the market anymore…a very good thing, indeed.

(From GreenBuzz.com, Monday, October 15, 2007)

The greening of suppliers is back in the news. Last week, several large companies, including Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever, announced that they would soon embark on a campaign to press suppliers to report greenhouse-gas emissions. The initiative, called the Supply Chain Leadership Coalition, would press suppliers to release data about carbon emissions and climate-change-mitigation strategies.

Not long before, Wal-Mart announced that it would measure the energy use and emissions of the entire supply chain of seven product categories, and find ways to increase their energy efficiency. Over time, the initiative is expected to spread to many other, if not all, products carried by the company.

What’s going on here? For years, companies have been trying to push the responsibility for environmental problems upstream. If suppliers don’t send products, parts, and materials that are overpackaged, or that contain toxic or nonrecyclable ingredients, then their customers could reduce their costs and liability in having to dispose of these things.

The pace has quickened recently, and moved to the more visible realm of consumer products and services. (For more stories on the topic, visit our supply chain resource center.) Moreover, big customers like those named above are asking their suppliers not just to be greener, but to disclose their strategies, programs, and performance.

But it’s more than that. The previous efforts dealt directly with the packaging and ingredients that ended up on their customers’ loading docks. The new push for climate disclosure deals with an impact that the customer never sees.

It’s an interesting development. To do business today, you have to do more than deliver a superior product, priced fairly, packaged economically, and containing no environmental no-nos. You have to be an efficient and responsible company overall.

Suddenly, carbon management and energy efficiency have become table stakes — the minimum commitments companies must make to play with the world’s biggest companies.