'Greening' Your business

“A lot of businesses use the offset model whereas we’ve chosen to attack the demand side. We don’t want to say to a business ‘here’s your carbon footprint, pay us money and we’ll plant trees and give you an accreditation’ and for them to think they’ve done something to decrease the problem, which is the voracious demand for energy,” explains Peart. “We don’t disagree with offsets, but we don’t think the market is sophisticated or clear enough to actually mean something.”

The prevention model highlights how much unnecessary energy businesses consume. Peart gives the example of a client company who started using reusable mugs on coffee runs, saving 2,000 disposable cups a month. Other behavioural changes include turning off computers, lights, and appliances when not in use, printing double-sided, recycling where possible, and adjusting air conditioning to an appropriate level. Most of these changes save money because of the reduced demand on resources.

More efficient appliances are often the same price or only slightly more expensive than standard appliances, diluting the myth that being environmentally friendly costs more. The better option delivers continued benefits through cost saving and can add to productivity. Some businesses may select utility services that currently cost a little more but do much to reduce emissions, such as switching over to renewable energy resources like wind or solar power.

“An important flow-on is to increase the demand for renewable energy products. If we can get that demand increase, then investment will drive towards those areas and hopefully governments will make different decisions on future energy requirements instead of more coal-fire options,” says Peart.

At the moment, e3 is focusing on the 20 percent reduction businesses can achieve on an individual level via education and by changing behavioural patterns. Eventually, however, Peart wants progressive reductions on a macro level with businesses to continually reduce their energy needs to meet the 60 percent reduction target required to avoid catastrophe.

Green Produce

Different businesses can take environmental initiative in different ways. Manufacturers, for example, can ensure that both their product and the processes involved in production benefit the environment. This could include obtaining material from sustainable sources, using less energy in manufacture, being more efficient with materials to reduce waste, and having reusable or recyclable components.

Even humble packaging can make a big difference. The National Packaging Covenant (NPC) charter is “to minimise the effects rising from the disposal of used packaging, conserve resources through better design and production processes, and facilitate the reuse and recycling of used packaging materials”. Because there is scant regulation on these issues, the NPC is a good place to start taking stock of how packaging can be more environmentally friendly, from material supplier to customer disposal.

IT products are notoriously resource hungry and many IT companies are starting to take action by becoming more responsible with their products. Lenovo recently released the Think Centre A61e desktop computer, which uses so little power it can run off an optional solar panel. It is made of 50 percent recycled material and 90 percent of the components are recyclable, which is gold standard on EPEAT, a ratings system issued by the Green Electronics Council.

Otto Ruettinger, Lenovo’s desktop business development manager for Australia/New Zealand, says the technology industry now has a responsibility to provide more efficient products for businesses and consumers, given that PC usage will increase. “PCs will make up a larger proportion of energy usage—it's about 4.5 percent but predicted to rise to 6 percent in the future,” he says. “Our social and environmental responsibility means that energy efficiency is becoming a lot more important to us and to our customers. That was the idea behind [developing] the A61e.”

Power management is another area to examine, says Ruettinger. “One of the most fundamental things you can do is activate power management on a fleet of PCs. When somebody goes home, they may not turn their PC off. What you can do is tell the PC after how many minutes you want to shut off the display,” he says. “If you're using an LCD display you can reduce power use from about 40 watts to about four watts.”

Lifecycle management of computers has also emerged as an issue. Many computers and other e-waste (electronic waste) become obsolete and are often discarded to landfill, despite having mostly salvageable parts and toxic components that need special attention. Charles Bligh, vice president of IBM’s Small-Medium Business division in Australia/New Zealand, says that IBM recycled 98 percent of about 600 tons of e-waste in their asset recovery program. “The greening of IT is not only what you bring in to your organisation but how you use it and how it leaves your organisation in terms of scrapping and reusing your equipment, making sure it doesn’t end up in landfill,” he says.