Recently, I found myself in a lengthy conversation regarding the political football known as “green energy”. While conventional wisdom believes “green energy” and “sustainable energy” to be synonymous, the reality is nothing is farther than the truth.
We had a good discussion; more like a chess game of wits, then I took his queen in short order. I casually mentioned while I believe most projects may consist of a “green initiative”, the goal of sustainability is to make the most efficient processes one can from available resources to save money you can allocate elsewhere.
I stated, for example, not every sustainability project should have a solar roof and some projects may consist only of solar…but the point is to find ways to save money and make what you have more efficient. If it works, it’s safe, the government foots the bill and a business owner receives generous tax advantages in the process; well, it can’t be all bad. If you cut energy costs by 20%-40%, that’s 20%-40% more of your company’s hard earned money you can/should/will allocate elsewhere.
Change is hard, nevertheless decisions are made. Any business owner can tell you an uninformed decision can be disastrous. But the reason most individuals remain in business and are successful in my opinion is one reason…common sense.
Businesses…and people…either make money, save money or lose money. Better to see how to sweeten the odds.