Going Green 101 for Fortune 1000 – Its not What you do, it is How you do it

Over a glass of wine last week, a colleague was showing me plans for how their multi-national was going to embark on the green journey. “What do you think?” He was eager and tentative.

I looked at the list. Electric cars, green roofs, e-waste recycling, lunch time talks with noted ‘local experts’. I nodded but was quiet.

“Where can we fine tune it… I mean what should we tackle first?”

Here’s what I shared that I thought readers going down the same route might want to know:

1. What’s your goal? If reducing your impact on climate change is the goal, only do projects that reduce your GHG emissions. Biggest contributors? Buildings (50%) and transportation.

2. Pick the projects that don’t involve people changing behavior in order to get a result. Why? We don’t like to change our habits. Many habits that contribute to GHG emissions are unconscious. Too hard. Examples? Change the lighting  and look at other lighting and energy controls in every building throughout the multi-national organization. Measure electrical and GHG emissions usage before and after. Get help doing this from this handy reference and look at other organizations’ examples like the University of Victoria.

3. Celebrate your achievements. Tell everyone what you will do, how you will measure it, do it and then show them the result. Do this internally first, then tell the world.

“Light bulbs? Like Live Earth was going on about?” He looked at me like sustainability and greening should be harder than that.

“You will get big results. Employees, leaders, suppliers, will be proud. You will be doing a good thing, being a great ripple.”

I added the next thought with a smile. “Then you will have buy-in for the tougher stuff that involves people doing things differently. You be a good ripple for them, they will be a good ripple for you. You have to start first.”

“Oh and by the way, make sure you get budgetary approval first by showing the cost savings the lighting change project will save. Payback is usually 1-2 years. Then you’ll get the buy-in from the CFO too, especially if he reads this survey of what other companies are doing about energy costs and how they are viewing the economic vs. environmental payback.”

The sun came out about that point. He nodded. ”I can do this… no, we can do this.”

Our conversation will continue in later posts while you digest this one.