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Some businesses are taking a green lead
November 22, 2007

Many people like you and me are starting to question our relentless quest for stuff. They are concerned about the natural resources our current level of consumption is fast draining and the amount of trash it is producing.

Our current government is dragging its petroleum soaked feet, what about businesses? Are they constructing 10-year strategic plans that include sustainable development or are they burying their heads in the sand wishing all these troubles will simply disappear. Can we innovate ourselves out of the deep hole? Though most scholars Marketplace inquired suggested that technology innovations were necessary not sufficient to avert our course of disaster, going green is still a good start for businesses with long-term vision.

Carpet king Ray Anderson founded Interface Inc. more than 35 years ago with the novel concept of making modular carpet tiles. Anderson recounted to Marketplace the moment he now calls his “spear in the chest” epiphany - In the early 90s, his customers asked what Interface was doing for the environment. Anderson didn’t have an answer. “It was a moment of conviction. I was convicted, there and then, as a plunderer of the Earth,” he said. Interface is nearly halfway toward its goal of having zero environmental impact - basically, taking nothing

from the Earth that isn’t renewable, and doing no harm to the environment in the process. For example: Instead of selling carpets, he will lease them to corporate customers. That guarantees Interface a steady stream of recyclable material once the carpets wear out. More importantly it introduces a revolutionary concept to manufacturing - corporations taking lifetime responsibility for their products.

Sick of the ridiculous amount of packaging from manufacturers? Mark Constantine – the founder of Lush Cosmetics agrees, “you’ve got a polythene container. then inside you’ve got a box. And inside the box, you’ve a container with another container inside - and this is going to be an aerosol, isn’t it? So much packaging, it’s unbelievable.” In his global network of 490 shops, Mark Constantine has defied the commercial logic behind packaging – 70% of its soaps, shampoos and skin-care creams are solid and unwrapped.

How about Wal-Mart? Even though generally the mention of Wal-Mart gets environmentalists’ blood boiling, we have to talk about Wal-Mart since it accounts for 10% of the total retail revenue in America. Wal-Mart receives 176 million customers a week. Wal-Mart claims that by pushing its 60,000 suppliers to cut their packaging by 5 percent, it’ll take 213,000 trucks off the roads, and save 67 million gallons of diesel fuel a year. The CEO Lee Scott promised his new stores would use 30% less energy than older ones and would aggressively reduce packaging. To the company, low energy consumption results in lower cost and less packaging means more shelf space for products and higher sales. Going green is not an altruistic endeavor, it’s about the bottom line. No matter, the end results may be the same.

To read earlier posts in ourpre-Thanksgiving series:

Before the holiday shopping mania sets in
How long can we shop like there is no tomorrow?
Real people make real changes

CindyW at Organicpicks

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