Daily Archives: January 10, 2010

Sustainability Took Centre Stage in 2009

I was glad to see a recent article on Industry Week last month that covered the recent study by McGraw-Hill construction, sponsored by Siemens (and available on the Siemens Building Technologies site), that found that three out of four firms viewed sustainability as consistent with their profit goals.

The study, which also found that:

  • 75% of firms expected green practices would reduce energy,
  • 70% of firms expected green practices would retain and attract customers,
  • 64% of firms expected green practices would provide market differentiation, and
  • 58% of firms expected green practices would serve the financial performance of the company

is dead on. Reduced energy consumption saves money. Market differentiation attracts more customers. More customers increases revenue. All of this adds up to more profit. Basically, what us bloggers have been telling you for years is true. Sustainability is more than just being green … it’s keeping your firm around for the long haul. For ideas on how to get started, check the SI sustainability archives or take a trip over to Tim Albinson’s 2Sustain.

After all, as per this recent Strategy+Business article, Green Is A Strategy. Look what Ecomagination did for GE … over $100 Million in cost savings to the bottom line and a portfolio of 80 new products and services that generate over $17 Billion in annual revenue. And with 80% of workers wanting to work for a company or organization that makes the environment a top priority and 67% of currently employed personnel planning to look for new opportunities when the economy picks up, your business could be in serious risk if you’re not green.

If you don’t know where to begin, the Strategy+Business article has five steps to get you started.

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Google may have ended voting on Project 10100 …

… but that doesn’t mean that you can’t change the world!

If you can come up with something that:

  • improves the Community
    and connects people, builds the neighbourhood, and protects unique cultures
  • increases individual Opportunity
    and lets people provide for themselves and their families
  • reduces Energy consumption
    and helps move the world toward safe, clean, and inexpensive energy
  • sustains the Environment
    and promotes a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem
  • improves Health
    and helps individuals lead longer and healthier lives
  • furthers Education
    and helps people get access and
  • ubiquitizes shelter
    and ensures everyone has a safe place to live

then, even without Project 10100, you too can change the world.

And if you’re not in it for the money, why not take part in the IEEE Humanitarian Technology Challenge (HTC)? The HTC is an innovative, collaborative endeavour that will develop and implement technological solutions to selected humanitarian challenges in developing countries. It’s mission is to create sustainable, scalable, and adaptable solutions that can be implemented locally within the environmental, cultural, structural, political, and socio-economic conditions that will

  • generate reliable electricity,
  • connect rural district health offices with central facilities, and
  • generate and tie individual ids to health records to provide potentially life-saving access to accurate health information for remote, mobile populations in underdeveloped nations.

Getting involved is easy. Just request access to the online collaborative platform or contact one of the leaders of the movement. For example, in Canada you could contact Alfredo Herrera (Ottawa) and in the US you could contact Narendra Mangra (Washington, DC). You can find more leaders on Linked-In or contact your local IEEE section to help you find someone closer to you.

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