For Corporations – It’s Not Easy Being Green

Recently the world looked to the Copenhagen climate conference to begin to establish a framework by which we could begin to reduce global warming and emphasize corporate environmental responsibility on a worldwide scale.  Even with the disappointing outcome of the summit, many businesses are recognizing that having a green initiative is crucial to their corporate strategy in 2010.

Even in the absence of global regulation, a corporate green initiative can provide drastic cost savings, unite employees around a common goal, enhance the company’s reputation in its community, and give the company a head-start on legislation that will mandate carbon emissions in the future. 

Still, many organizations are finding it difficult to get green initiatives off the ground, even after creating internal task forces, and dedicating resources to the project.

Determining Project Leadership

The successful green initiatives that we encounter are typically spearheaded by the company’s CEO or a senior manager.  Having this level of investment ensures that the project is well-funded, and doesn’t quickly fall out of favor when other corporate initiatives demand resources.  However, many corporate environmental efficiency projects have been started at a grass-roots level by environmentally conscious employees that want to see their company become a more responsible corporate citizen.  The longevity of these types of bottom-up projects hinge on the ability of the ad-hoc task force to get buy in from upper management.

Deputizing the Masses

The most successful eco-friendly corporate initiatives engage the entire body of employees in an organization to reduce waste and improve efficiency.  Newsletters, training meetings, and employee incentive programs can be introduced that help to motivate employees to participate.  These types of programs also require direct support from senior management.

Establishing Goals

With many under-funded green initiatives, we find that the project team has a difficult time determining realistic goals when it comes to energy reduction and waste reduction.  By setting an annual percentage energy reduction target goal, the team has something to work towards.  These drivers will often improve the likelihood that capital will be allocated to the project and will improve the potential for success.

Going it Alone

With the abundance of green franchises and energy consulting practices that have been established over the past years, there is a tremendous wealth of knowledge that is available to employees who are starting or managing a corporate green initiative.  These consultants can aid in project inception and ongoing management, and can often streamline the planning phases, using the cost-savings estimation tools that are available to them.  Employing a green energy consultant can save time and money when trying to get a corporate green initiative off the ground.