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Top 10 list for businesses going green
Like I said earlier this week — everyone’s going green. It’s morally, politically, and economically the thing to do. But if you are a business, how do you do it? With so many opinions (and cost ramifications) on ways to better your environmental impact, it can be hard for a well-intentioned company to know where to start.
As a follow-up to yesterday’s Q&A with Rick Dipper, Rick and his team put together the below top 10 list for businesses going green. Take a look and let me know what you think. Did Rick and his team miss any big ones? And let us know if your company is doing any of these already. And if you’re hungry for more info on the topic, take a read through this Nortel position paper on going green.
Top 10 things a company can do to be greener:
1) Efficient data centers: these use tons of power and their environmental footprint can be drastically reduced through green deployment
2) Space optimization: have offices that are efficient but not wasteful. Every square foot that isn’t used but heated, cooled, cleaned, etc, is a waste
3) LEED compliant and/or green offices: green facilities use less energy
4) Investigate opportunities for alternative energy usage at your locations; This encourages further development and also increased diversity in energy supply.
5) Minimize travel: travel has a high environmental footprint, use audio or video conferencing or Telepresence
6) Mobility software and culture for employees: have mobility options for employees to telework and encourage their use
7) Live the 3 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle across all actions, from landscaping to product design
8 ) Educate employees, customers, shareholders and other stakeholders about green issues and why they are important; also, learn from others
9) Aggressively track green performance metrics: ‘what gets measured gets done’, define metrics and track them….especially know your carbon footprint
10) Live up to green commitments: green can’t be a fad, when your company takes actions they need to be supported and sustainable
