Sustainability to Spark Future Business Growth

I thought I might have been writing a little too much about greenhouse gases and global warming because they are always very much on my mind, but then I read Tom Friedman’s piece in last Sunday’s New York Times called The Power of Being Green. In it, Friedman talks about how hard China is trying to become green, and how much of a geopolitical advantage can be gained by dedicating ourselves to a sustainable culture here in America. I bet this is Friedman’s next book, since there is already a Discovery Channel documentary by him on the same subject premiering this tomorrow night, April 21.

One of the things he talks most about in the article is how “green,” which has often been associated with tree-hugging, can be renamed. He says, “I want to rename it geostrategic, geoeconomic, capitalistic and patriotic. I want to do that because I think that living, working, designing, manufacturing and projecting America in a green way can be the basis of a new unifying political movement for the 21st century. A redefined, broader and more muscular green ideology is not meant to trump the traditional Republican and Democratic agendas but rather to bridge them when it comes to addressing the three major issues facing every American today: jobs, temperature and terrorism.”

In the body of this fairly deep article, Friedman talks about how the enterprise has already begun to monitor its carbon footprint and produce changes. This is one of the things of which I’m most proud: we first introduced the tools to do this in 1993, and have been tuning, expanding, and perfecting them ever since, to the point where we have a unified suite of products that can help any company, big or small, control its carbon footprint.

Friedman sees the “green” initiative not only as a business imperative, but as a way to combat terrorism throughout the world. He sees it as something we, around the world, owe our children and grandchildren.

Take a minute to read this fine article and tell me what you think.

Add comment April 23rd, 2007