Friday, June 13, 2008

Clean Energy

Now is the right time for your company to go green

By Bruce Anderson

What do these facts have in common: $4 per gallon gas, the $110 billion-plus cost of Katrina, food riots in Mogadishu, record ridership on Boston’s subways and the dollar weakening to 0.65 Euros? And what can you as a New England businessperson do about their cause?

Of course, these facts all are related to our broken energy system. Fixing the system offers businesses enormous opportunities. Here are some examples of what others have done:

FedEx Corp. recently announced that its hybrid-electric truck fleet has racked up more than 2 million miles of service. They plan on adding 75 more hybrid vehicles in the United States and Europe. Their hybrids cut fuel use and cost by 42 percent, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 30 percent and slash particulate pollution by 96 percent.

Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI), the outdoor gear cooperative, supports alternative transportation to offices and stores for its employees, slashing single-vehicle occupancy at its headquarters down to 58 percent. Also, REI is developing an electricity-consumption road map for each of its stores over the next three to five years that will allow the company to build between six and 10 new buildings each year with no net energy growth.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has established long-term goals of zero percent waste and 100 percent renewable energy in the operation of its 4,000 stores. Targets include spending $500 million per year to improve fuel efficiency in its truck fleet by 25 percent over three years and doubling it within 10 years, reducing greenhouse gases by 20 percent in seven years, reducing energy use at stores by 30 percent, and cutting solid waste from U.S. stores by 25 percent in three years.

Locally, Staples Inc. is reducing its 2001 emissions by seven percent before 2010. EMC Corp. has pledged to cut its 2005 emissions 8 percent per square foot by 2012. And Raytheon Co. intends to reduce its 2002 emissions by 33 percent per dollar of revenue by 2009.

With stark, overwhelming evidence that energy waste is robbing our wallets and choking us in carbon, we don’t need rocket scientists to conclude that our obsolete energy behaviors are the principal drag on America’s economy:

Borrowing a billion dollars a day from one country to buy foreign oil from another; giving a trillion dollars a year in subsidies to coal and oil producers; struggling with utilities who make it almost impossible for clean energy users to plug into the grid.

But our broken energy system goes beyond our economy, said Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a recent Vanity Fair article: “Carbon dependence has eroded our economic power, destroyed our moral authority, diminished our international influence and prestige, endangered our national security, and damaged our health and landscapes. It is subverting everything we value.”

Fortunately, human creativity knows no limits when it’s motivated. So whether you are the leader of your company or an employee, make a bold and deep commitment to take your company green and the rest will follow. To get the buy-in required for success, secure ownership of your commitment across the entire community of your company, including staff, owners, spouses and partners, customers, vendors and the general community, by asking them for ideas, help and involvement. Organize a group of eager beavers, pick a leader who is good at working in a collaborative environment, establish goals, metrics, and timelines, and let your “community” have at it.

Whether you’re small or large, try to define people’s contributions, regardless of level of effort, as “volunteer”-like. People don’t expect to get paid extra to help their company be a good citizen.

Of course, if the stakes are really high and/or the potential dollar savings are significant, consider hiring a C-level “Energy Czar.”

Start with the little things, like compact fluorescent lighting, achieve small successes and then build on them.

But regardless of how you start, start now and be bold!
 

Bruce Anderson is CEO of Wilson TurboPower Inc., and co-chair of the New England Clean Energy Council. He can be reached at Bruce.Anderson@WilsonTurboPower.com.