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• Green Is the Color of Money

  By Burkey Belser

  Posted on January 7, 2008 at 4:33 pm

  
  
  

  You will Learn:
  1. Why big businesses are big on green.
  2. How to make money while saving energy.
  3. How to build a jet airplane out of aluminum cans (time permitting).
  4. What going green can do for a professional service firm’s image.

  According to a 2007 study by McKinsey & Company, the United States could shave as much as 28% off the amount of greenhouse gases it generates, at a modest cost and with only small technology innovations.

  Not only that, many of the changes would actually result in some fairly hefty savings that would easily pay for themselves. Corporations are starting to see the light—and it’s green.

  Goldman Sachs, the prophetic financier that just sidestepped the real estate crisis, started investing in cellulosic ethanol, wind power and solar power in 2005. It’s paying off well enough that some of the company’s executive limousines are now hybrids.

  General Electric’s “Ecomagination” programs are helping to cut greenhouse gas emissions, while GE’s line of energy-efficient products (including wind-operated electric generators) is growing every day.

  Interesting, isn’t it? Ideas that seemed kooky and treehugger-esque are suddenly good for business. And you don’t have to be an energy sector player for these efforts to pay, either.

  Business through green-colored glasses

  Businesses are becoming more interested in their carbon “footprints”: the total amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted by a product or service. Through new programs, people—and businesses—can buy “carbon offsets.” Why? To save the world? Well, yes, but also to improve their business.

  At least one airline—Delta—now allows you to pay about $5.50 to make up for the carbon used in flying your body from one place to another. This money is then given to conservation groups who use it to neutralize your effect on the environment.

  General Mills is using oat hulls, a Cheerios byproduct, to create power for its manufacturing operations. Recycling has actually earned more for the company than it used to spend on disposal.

  General Mills and Unilever are redesigning packaging to require less paper and plastic in their construction, reducing the number of delivery trucks on the road because of easier shipping and cutting the use of petroleum-based plastic.

  Wal-Mart has challenged major big-rig manufacturers, and funded research, to produce the first diesel-electric hybrid heavy-duty trucks. The one that does the best job will provide the trucks for Wal-Mart’s fleet, the second largest in the world.

  The Philadelphia Eagles are recycling the trash left in the stadium and field after their games (some of it tossed, presumably, at opposing—or their own—players by the famously unruly Philly fans).

  Coors Brewing is selling waste beer to Valero Energy to be converted into ethanol sold in Colorado gas stations.

  Banks are becoming experts in green. The Bank of America Tower now being constructed in mid-town Manhattan, the second tallest building in the city, will also be the first with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification from the United States Green Building Council. Among its innovations: containers of water throughout the building gather heat, pumping it into the building in the winter and out into the surrounding bedrock during the summer. The building operates on half the electricity normally used by a structure of its size. JP Morgan Chase is catching rainwater from the roof of its building, using the water to power the toilets in the building and saving 30% in the use and cost of water supplied for the building’s operation. (Both of these improvements are in part the result of New York’s adoption of a “green building credit” that helps cut state income taxes for green-inspired building ideas.)

  U.S. airlines throw away enough aluminum cans each year to build fifty-eight 747s. In just three months, flight attendants on Delta Airlines gathered 60 tons of aluminum recyclables. (It was the flight attendants’ idea.)

  Target’s recycling program has made use of over 47,000 used shopping carts, 2 million broken plastic hangers, 4 million pounds of shrink-wrap and 10,000 pounds of recyclable batteries.

  Apple, Dell, HP and Lenovo computers have adopted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s computer-oriented LEED-style program, the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), which judges the “greenness” of computer systems.

  Global warming used to be a vague threat. Then it became a bit scary. Then a panic. Now it’s a way to make money. And, oh, by the way, it just might save the planet. Just how dang American can you get?

  “But,” you ask, “can this pay off for a professional services business like mine?”

  You bet.

  

  Take for example, Nixon Peabody LLP. In 2007, it became the first law firm in the nation to embrace sustainable building practices for its offices. Taking a cue from corporations such as Airbus, Albertson’s, Alcoa, Alaska Airlines, Anheuser Busch, Dow Chemical, Dupont, Starbucks and Ford, it became the first law firm in the country to appoint a Chief Sustainability Officer.

  A belief in green business leads Nixon Peabody to spend half-again more on a new San Francisco office as it might have for an “un-green” structure. The new office is LEED-certified, making Nixon Peabody the first law firm in the United States to have an office LEED-certified in the category of “Commercial Interiors.” And it’s not a bad place to work, either.

  Nixon Peabody attorneys are well versed in the substance of green issues as well, including cleantech (products and services that improve performance, productivity and efficiency while reducing costs, energy consumption and pollution), renewable energy and green buildings.

  Then, to make sure the firm got the most from its green initiative, Nixon Peabody did more of the right thing. They took it to market. In November, they ran a full-page ad in the energy section of The Wall Street Journal. And with a bit of creative alchemy they turned their already successful “what the clients want” campaign green. With more creative help, they registered the phrase “legally green” (thank you, Reese Witherspoon), developed a program logo, put together an integrated cleantech practice brochure, built an electronic holiday card and staked a leadership claim to the green mantle—all in a purposeful and coordinated way.

  Makes you green with envy, doesn’t it?

  

  Tags:

  Carbon Footprint, Sustainability 

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