Going Green Is Good Business....................................................................
A fantastic way to motivate yourself to go green fast is to examine the long
list of real-world benefits and rewards that your business is sure to reap the
moment you begin. Going green is not simply the right thing to do; it makes
good business sense too. In this section, you’ll learn how going green can
enhance your image, build trust with regulators, and influence the course of
life on Planet Earth (pretty heady stuff, that).
Enhance your image...........................................................................
From making your customers happy to building trust with regulatory authori-
ties, from reducing your risk exposures to nurturing the ecosystem, you can
find numerous ways to do the right thing while simultaneously improving
your company’s image. The next few sections outline several companies who
have gone green and detail some of the benefits they’ve reaped.
Consumers and shareholders alike never have been easily fooled, so they
know who is genuine and who is simply greenwashing(that is, appropriating
one or another environmental virtue for the sake of creating a false, pro-
environmental image). The evidence is there. People who live and work in
green environments are healthier and safer. Knowing as much, your customers
only want more, which is why they are the ones who sit behind the wheel of
the machine going green.
Hewlett Packard
As you can see from our list in the “Ten green giants” sidebar, HP isn’t the
only global manufacturer heeding the call to go green. It has experienced a
120 percent increase worldwide in the number of inquiries connected to the
environment since the last half of 2006. In 2005, the company received $6 bil-
lion in requests for proposals that had some environmental element. Pat
Tiernan, vice president for corporate social environmental responsibility, has
said that that number continues to climb.
As such, the company has taken the full lifecycle of products into account
when greening its supply chain. For example, they provide all of their part-
ners up- and downstream with a list of substances that are either hard on the
environment or entirely banned and then take measures to ensure that these
partners are adhering to respective laws. Bonnie Nixon Gardiner, global pro-
gram manager of supply chain social and environmental responsibility, says
this policy is “non-negotiable.”
Wal-Mart
Starting with toothpaste, milk, soap, soda, beer, DVDs, and vacuum cleaners,
Wal-Mart has begun working with suppliers to gauge and reduce the energy it
takes to manufacture, purchase, and distribute their products. In addition, the
164 Part III: Going Green
