Well, we all do. We’ve only begun to explore the ways in which green businesses can begin to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Evaluating our built space is crucial; ‘greening’ business transport is just as important. And then we’ll move on to a couple of enticing and inspiring examples of the potential of renewable energy sources and innovative design.
vroom, vroom, vroom …
Sorry Mazda (and Holden, Toyota, etc.) but we all need to get out of your/our cars. Or at least cut down on those long daily commutes endured by millions of people around the globe. We’re not talking a cold turkey ban on the internal
combustion engine, but any emissions reductions related to commuting are going to help.
- Site your business where cycling, walking and public transport are easy. Provide secure shelter for bicycles and install shower facilities. In other words, rethink the idea of building that remote suburban office park with no public transport.
- Incentivize walking, biking, and taking public transport for your employees. Free bus passes or subsidies on bicycles are just a couple of the possibilities.
- Is telecommuting an option for your business? High speed internet connections, teleconferencing and Skype can enable your staff to be ‘present’ in important ways while they work from home a few days a week.
- If you’ve got a car fleet, look carefully at streamlining vehicle usage and improving fuel-economy standards. Hybrids and electric cars and vans may work for some, but redesigning your operations to cut down on kms/miles traveled may produce significant emissions reductions for many.
- Do you really need to get on that plane or will a videoconference do the trick instead? If travel is essential, by all means for go for it. Buy some reliable carbon offsets to reduce your impact. Or take the train if you’re lucky enough to have access.
some really, really cool stuff
Here are a couple of other ideas for reducing your carbon footprint that take us a bit further out of the realm of ‘business as usual.’
Look into planting your roof. The plants provide insulation (reducing energy consumption), absorb greenhouse gases, and reduce rainwater runoff. They also look fantastic.
The idea of decentralized energy is also quite compelling. We tend to assume that large-scale centralized power grids are the only way to provide a secure energy supply, but this conventional wisdom deserves closer scrutiny.
Decentralized energy includes technologies that utilize combined heat and power (CHP), microgeneration , and extensive use of renewable sources like biomass, solar, geothermal and wind power. Here’s a very recent development in the U.S.: Quaker Oats is providing 14% of the electricity used at the University of Iowa by burning waste oat hulls. Who would have thought? Just goes to show what the possibilities are with waste products like this.
Check out this video for some examples of how these strategies are already in place in parts of the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. There are some very inspiring examples here that are not only energy-wise, but somehow strangely aesthetic.
This approach can’t really be put into place by individual businesses, but it shows how collective efforts that are supported by the right government incentives have already begun to produce truly sustainable energy systems that can dramatically reduce GHG emissions.
And that video was produced back in 2006. Does anyone have any more recent examples they’d be willing to share? There’s got to be more of this going on by now.
Okay, so we’ve now looked at putting our own house(s) in order. In the next installment: how to tackle those ‘away from home’ gas pains.
