Jul
12
Ask Yourself WHY?
Even if you just want to get on with running your business and keep your costs down because times are tough and you are getting sick and tired of hearing all the politicians, big business and the green groups all endlessly arguing about carbon: going green to save makes sound business sense.
Climate change caused by atmospheric pollution is a real problem and we must reduce our greenhouse emissions but please do it the right way. I met someone recently who told me “oh we have gone green. It was quite expensive but it was the right thing to do.” When I asked what she had done, she told me she did not know, the office manager had organised a carbon audit and they had paid the bill for offsets but not really changed anything in their business. Oh Dear.
That was the wrong approach and a complete contrast to the article below about a couple who have reduced their carbon emissions by 75% with no capital outlay.
By 2000 Jolyon and Marion had already cut their emissions by 50% at no cost to themselves. Now they have cut those reduced emissions by a further 50% again at no cost. That will be a 75% reduction in the last decade. All with NO with no capital outlay.
To go beyond that they say they need to buy a Hybrid car plugged into our house main and charged by their solar panels. “Thereafter we will be nearly sustainable. All funded by our sustainable savings” they told me. Wow! Is that a contrast to the lady who paid to “go green” while making no changes. Going green does not need to be costly and in fact saves money.
The so called Climate Change issue is really three things. One increasing world population. Two our increasing standard of living. Three our destruction of the environment.
That combination is not sustainable, our exploitation of the world’s resources is increasing exponentially and exponential increases always result in a crash. Governments around the world are taking actions, prices are going up and resources are running out.
Businesses that attempt to ignore this issue will not survive the next five years and those that leave it until the last minute will find that the help they need is in short supply because qualified help is overwhelmed by the rush and the costs have inevitably skyrocketed.
Ignoring or postponing going green is simply bad business especially when you consider that you can make big savings in your business by taking a systematic approach to identifying all your issues and putting a simple and effective system in place to reduce your consumption and increase your efficiency.
The best way to do this is with ISO 14001, the system that was developed to help business as a result of the same Rio Earth Summit that resulted in the Kyoto Protocol. Whether your business chooses to become certified or not ISO 14001 will make your business environmentally sustainable and build in ongoing savings. You will be surprised how easy it is when you concentrate on keeping it low-paper and simple. I am not going to pretend that there is not some work to do for around 3-4 months while you are implementing your system but you will find that your workload reduces in other areas. ISO 14001 is a way of managing your business through all levels of your business and building real improvement. Ask yourself why you continue to delay and put your business at risk when there is a simple tool that will make your business environmentally sustainable. ISO 14001 is the way to go if you still want to be in business in five years time.
Jean Cannon has spent the last 11 years actively helping small to medium businesses worldwide save costs, increase efficiency and employee loyalty and become environmentally sustainable. Green business is about reducing your carbon footprint with sensible energy management and it increases profit with the internationally recognised green certification, ISO 14001. Learn more at http://www.enviro-action.com optin for practical free help and newsletter.
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