Energy

Sustaining momentum

By Jessica Tremayne

Print This Page

Send this page to a friend

Sustainability isn’t about saving the planet. It’s about saving your business.

Conducting business in a sustainable manner means you can spend less and increase revenue.

While sustainability does help the planet, the incentive of reducing your business costs by half is a strong reason to pay attention. The buzz is that traditional energy and other resources will be in tight supply in the future, resulting in volatile prices. By investing in sustainable efforts now, you can help ensure your business’s long-term success.

“If you just continue business as usual and don’t implement sustainable practices, you’ll be poorly equipped to deal with arising circumstances,” says Joseph Fiksel, principal and co-founder of Eco-Nomics LLC, an internationally recognized authority on sustainability issues. “You’re creating a risk management issue for your company.”

Americans compose 5 percent of the world’s population, yet contribute almost 25 percent of the greenhouse gas pollution, which scientists believe causes global warming. If everyone used and wasted energy and other resources this way, we’d need four planet earths to keep up with the demand. Consumers are finally taking notice of this egregious waste and are looking to buy from sustainable businesses, while more and more businesses are looking to obtain products from other businesses using sustainable practices. This is a time when your business can not only streamline production but also increase revenue by drawing in new customers.

“Barack Obama was so specific about forming an energy plan, we’ll be seeing things change soon,” says T. Boone Pickens, founder and chairman of BP Capital Management. “This means businesses have to get going on where they’ll be standing when this comes in to play.”

Fiksel says sustainability doesn’t cost anything.

“Any investment you make is done for business reasons,” he says. “Sustainability will save money and increase stockholder value in your company. A pet peeve of mine is companies placing sustainability practices on the back burner when the cost of gas or energy goes down. All motivation is lost because they’ll be paying less for the energy sources they have and alternative energy looks less attractive. This way of thinking sets them back further and further.”

All of the readers polled by Smart Business say being green is an important part of their corporate philosophy, yet almost half report that they’re not willing to invest in greener practices. Experts say spending money on green initiatives isn’t paying for an image; it’s a direct investment in a more economic way of running your business.