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| Environmental responsibility, when it pays |
May 5, 2008 |
Will our green intentions lead to real change this time? I think so, but to find out which ideas will be successful, look to yourself
Environmental concerns are front and centre today in the media, in political discussions and during coffee breaks at work. But the cover of this issue of Backbone asks a good question: are we actually making real progress this time, or are we looking at a greenwash in which people and institutions simply jockey to be on the right side of this fence while actually accomplishing little? Will all the sound and fury end up, again, signifying nothing?
Because remember, we’ve been here before. A number of years ago everyone was talking about holes in the ozone layer and PCBs and recycling and habitat loss. We didn’t make much progress then, so the problem is still with us.
It would be fair to say, however, that this time there is an increased sense of urgency, coupled with a greater emphasis on practical solutions. You’ll find many such examples in this issue. But as the green exhortations fly, which are likely to succeed? Here’s an easy test: as Detlev Zwick, Schulich School of Business associate professor, said in Hailey Eisen’s cover story, successful green products and services will be those that are mainstream and cost effective. “It won’t be driven by moral obligation because, bottom line, there is still only a small group of consumers who will pay a premium for environmentally sound products.”
The successful environmental initiatives will be those that deliver a benefit without requiring us to dramatically change our lifestyle.
Short and long roads
Like compact fluorescent bulbs. These little gadgets deliver huge environmental returns (see the Publisher’s Letter on the next page) and don’t require significant change from us: yesterday you ate dinner to the light of an incandescent bulb, today it’s a fluorescent. Easy. Compact fluorescents will be a hugely successful environmental technology.
Electric cars, however, face a tougher road to widespread adoption. Few inventions have changed our society as much as the car, and gassing up and hitting the road are deeply ingrained in us. An electric car is intriguing and pulls at our genuine desire to be better people, but to actually drive one would require us to start thinking in terms of short round trips. If your electric car can go for six or eight hours on a charge, you then have to return home or go somewhere with a compatible plug to charge it overnight. Filling a gas tank takes five minutes; recharging a car’s battery will require many hours.
So even if practical electric cars were available today, they would not supplant gas-powered vehicles for quite some time.
On the business side, a good example of a company using motivated self interest to deliver both customer satisfaction and power reductions is co-location provider Q9 Networks. Hosting companies traditionally charge on a per-foot basis: a server installation that occupies 100 square feet will be charged for the space occupied, and all the concomitant services—including power—are included on an all-you-can-eat basis.
The problem is there is no incentive for customers to moderate their power use, so a few years ago Toronto-based Q9 moved instead to a per-volt-amp model. Customers that used less electricity saved themselves money, so suddenly customers began to audit their electricity load. “The behaviour of our customers changed dramatically when we made this switch. They are much more active about inventorying their equipment and much more knowledgeable about how much power they’re using and why,” said Q9 CEO Osama Arafat. “The overall consumption for every one of our customers has been reduced.”
None of this argument is meant to discount altruism or the real desire of many people to help the environment, but for the type of massive and near-term change we require, look first for practical and relatively low-pain initiatives to be the success stories. If these moves also save people money, success is almost guaranteed. And once we see that these initiatives work, we will be more willing to move on to more substantial lifestyle change.
Peter Wolchak
Editor
pwolchak@backbonemag.com
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