Energy
Sustaining momentum
Get the rundown on sustainability before your resources run out.
By Jessica Tremayne
Smart Business Houston | February 2009
Page 1 of 3
Jedediah Greenfield
environmental communications manager, City of Houston
LaVerne Williams
CEO, Environment Associates, Architects & Consultants
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.
“Sustainability has been moving from the
margins of societal acceptance to more
mainstream,” says Jedediah Greenfield,
environmental communications manager,
mayor’s office, city of Houston. “Any company can cut costs of their operations
when establishing a sustainability plan. For
example, the city of Houston will save 20
percent of energy costs each year by retrofitting lights in 11 million square feet of city
facilities.”
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.”
You need to take the initiative if you are
going to survive.
“When businesses think they can’t do any
better, they’ll die out,” says LaVerne A.
Williams, founder and CEO, Environment
Associates, Architects & Consultants.
“There’s a natural life and death to everything, but businesses that don’t implement
sustainability will be sooner than later.”
