Your greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions pain, that is.
What pain, you say? Well, try this on.
While the details of the future are inevitably vague, we can safely say that the combined effects of peak oil and global warming are about to transform our REALLY BIG fossil fuel party into one colossal hangover.
The cost of oil will undoubtedly start heading up once economic growth picks up again, and lawmakers around the world are grappling with how to put a price on carbon emissions. We’ll all be paying for carbon twice – on its way in (to our cars, factories, furnaces), and then on its way out into the ether as CO2. Ouch.
If there was ever a compelling business case to make a change and be a leader among wo/men, this must be it.
The basic idea? Leave the coal, oil and natural gas in the ground. Don’t burn it. Just say no.
Not that it’s that easy. In fact, this is the topic that’s really going to test the ‘Kiss, Kiss, Kiss’ principle that I promised in the first post of this series. To give you some examples of where I could go with this thing, I could talk about carbon taxes, cap and trade emissions trading schemes, carbon offsets, carbon neutrality, or carbon capture and sequestration (or storage).
But I won’t. I just can’t make those things simple. The experts are still defining them, politicians are debating them, unscrupulous entrepreneurs are trying to exploit them, and regulators are scrambling to keep up.
So I’m just going to give you some tips, okay?
first, put your own house in order
Let’s start at home. Look around you. See any (invisible) gas floating off into space? Maybe it’s coming out of your coal- or oil-burning furnace or boiler room. Or perhaps out of the tail pipes of your car fleet and employees’ cars, or out of those massive GE turbo-fan jet engines of the Boeing 777 that’s taking you to New York or Sydney or Vancouver. Or maybe even out of the smokestack you’ve got stashed out back.
There are also all the fossil fuels that were burned in creating the material objects that you see around you. This includes the big things like the concrete, bricks, and steel of your buildings, as well as the smaller bits and pieces, including the paper, vinyl and plastic that surround us everywhere we go. Here are a few things you can do.
bricks and mortar
Evaluate your built space. According to the UNEP, buildings account for 30-40% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, so greening up your business space is a crucial part of reducing your carbon footprint.
The task will vary tremendously depending on your industry, number of employees, space requirements, climate, and energy consumption. Buildings are also incredibly complex creatures when observed in detail, so unless your operation is reasonably small and simple you’re likely to need expert advice on how to tackle this issue.
Here’s an example of a new five-star green rated building at my old workplace that is inspiring, but also demonstrates how many different factors need to be considered.
The World Green Building Council is a great place to start, and they’ve got national branches in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the U.S. The American branch also has a guide on how to approach leasing commercial space that looks useful.
Complexities aside, a few basic principles will be helpful. Get to know your micro-climate. Need warmth? Embrace the sun with the siting and design of your building. Install thermal solar in your floors to capture and store the warmth, and photovoltaic solar panels on the outside of your building to generate electricity.
Feeling a bit hot? Find a way to make some shade, capture the breeze, and install windows that actually open. If you can afford it, install ‘intelligent’ windows that will regulate temperature for you.
Retrofit existing buildings rather than constructing new ones if you can. New building materials are carbon and energy intensive, and removing old buildings produces waste. There is a new business emerging called ‘deconstruction’ that’s attempting to make better use of these materials, but staying put is still your best option if a retrofit is feasible.
Insulate, insulate, insulate. And then insulate some more. The most fuel-efficient and renewable energy of all is the energy never used. Look into using heat pumps where you do need heating and cooling.
In the next installment, we’ll look at GHG transport issues for businesses. C U then.
