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costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more

than 800,000 cars. Imagine what the numbers would be if businesses began to

use these bulbs across their entire operations.

Here are some of the advantages of CFL (ENERGY STAR) bulbs:

Use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and

last up to 10 times longer

Save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb’s lifetime

Produce about 75 percent less heat, so they’re safer to operate and can

cut energy costs associated with home cooling

Water: To bottle or not to bottle?.....................................................

Some companies provide bottled water for their employees. This seemingly

healthy choice is actually very negative for the environment. A 2001 report

by the World Wide Fund for Nature estimates that approximately 1.5 million

tons of plastic are wasted in the bottling of 89 billion liters of water each year.

Notwithstanding the plastic itself, the energy needed to make and deliver

these bottles to market depletes limited fossil fuels. Due to their unregulated

use of resources and their production of billions of plastic bottles, bottled

water companies are creating a real strain on the environment.

For individuals and businesses alike, the alternative to consuming bottled

water is to use local water treated and purified with your own systems. The

three most common methods of water purification are reverse osmosis, dis-

tillation, and water filtration. By offering employees filtered water instead of

water bottles, you and the environment both win, again.

Reduce your risk ................................................................................

A vital part of going green involves continually tracking your key perfor-

mance indicators and compliance with internal and external regulations to

ensure that you are not breaking any laws. Such practices enable you to

manage risk in a way that minimizes everyone’s bad dream of costly fines or

forced shutdowns. And the trend of adding C-suite jobs with titles like Chief

Compliance Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer further reinforces the

need for “owners” to be responsible for managing these risks. The company’s

success depends on it. Of course, your key stakeholders will love you all the

more, too, when you are on top of your GRC because you’ll have the report-

ing and collaborative capabilities that enable you to communicate with them

on a regular, timely basis.

168 Part III: Going Green