producers such as Consol and Peabody, chemical giants such as Dow and
DuPont, and IT innovators like IBM — report any activity that reduces emis-
sions of greenhouse gases or increases carbon fixation or sequestration.
Saving the planet, clearly, is not the only reason to take such a proactive stance
in the overall move to go green. Nor is the prospect of making a few more fast
bucks. What all these companies have in common is a vision of the possibility
that they get to help draft the very regulations they will soon need to oblige. In
other words, joining the go-green game early on can garner you a precious
advantage: that of receiving advance notification of future changes in the regu-
latory industry. Staying ahead of the game can enable companies to forecast
trends and influentially engage key people and agencies. Furthermore, they can
also meet and, frequently, beat regulations before enforcement policies are set.
What can this mean for you? While your competitors are rushing to catch up,
you will already be in the process of seeking out other ways to increase your
competitive advantage. With prospects like these, is it any wonder that USCAP
has pledged to “work with the President, the Congress, and all other stake-
holders” to enact a climate change program at the earliest possible date?
Implementing Green Practices ...................................................................
Just by planting trees, switching light bulbs, and filtering your water, you can
make a real difference in the environment. In the next few sections, we take a
look at a few practices your company can adopt to make going green easier.
Trees matter........................................................................................
More than 20 percent of the world’s oxygen is produced in the Amazon rain-
forest alone. And yet since 1992, the number of rainforest acres has dropped
by 50 percent. Ponder this for about a millisecond and you can see why
businesses everywhere have begun to engage in tree plantings. Accor North
America, for example, is planting 20,000 trees throughout the United States
and Canada — one for each of its employees. Another such philanthropic
company is Milliken Contract; since launching Trees for All on Arbor Day
2006, Milliken customers have added about 8,000 trees of renewed forests
through their online program.
Let there be (green) light!..................................................................
If every American home replaced just one old light bulb with a compact fluo-
rescent lamp (CFL) bulb, the country would save enough energy to light more
than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy
Chapter 9: Making Your Company Environmentally Friendly 167
