In Recession, Business Keeps Going Green

by Joel Makower

Given all that's been going on—the global economic meltdown and the tectonic political shifts—going green should be the last thing on the mind of any CEO. In such challenging times, "saving the Earth" should rightfully take a back seat to "saving the business."

Or, maybe it need not? Consider these announcements—all since Nov. 4, Election Day:

• Bank of America (BAC) plans to phase out loans to companies that use mountaintop extraction as their primary means of coal production. It also will give $1 million to Harvard to study the implications of capturing the greenhouse gas emissions generated by burning coal.

• Clorox (CLX) has expanded its year-old Green Works line of eco-friendly cleaners, which has met with such success that the company raised its sales projections six times in 12 months.

• Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), the largest bottler of Coke beverages, will more than double the size of its fleet of hybrid vehicles. It will soon have 327 green trucks on the road in the U.S. and Canada.

• Heinz (HNZ), Sodexo (EXHO.PA), Sysco (SYY), and Unilever (UN) are among 30 large growers, food buyers, and environmental groups that formed the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops, a coalition to incorporate sustainability from the field to the table for specialty crops.

• Wal-Mart (WMT) plans to partner with the World Environment Center to help more than two dozen suppliers in El Salvador and Guatemala improve energy and water savings and reduce waste, raw material use, and emissions.

I could go on.
Only Nudging the Needle

In good times and bad, the greening of mainstream business marches on. Although the people—and their political representatives—have only recently taken notice, companies have been integrating environmental thinking into their operations increasingly for years.

It's all good, but it's not good enough. It's true that more companies are doing more things to correct years of environmental neglect. But all these efforts collectively move the needle of environmental progress only slightly, if at all.

To be sure, there's much to celebrate. We're using an ever-shrinking amount of energy, water, and toxic materials to produce a unit of gross domestic product. Green building is on the rise, spurring technologies that save energy and money while creating more healthful workplaces. There is a green race taking place in the automobile industry, with every major manufacturer planning to introduce electric vehicles. The leading consumer product companies and retailers are starting to rigorously assess the environmental impact of their products using sophisticated metrics, sending signals along the supply chain that tomorrow's products will need to hew to higher levels of environmental responsibility.
An Issue of Scale

But on balance, despite a growing chorus of corporate commitments and actions, I'm less optimistic that these activities, in aggregate, are addressing planetary problems at sufficient scale and speed. President Obama's stimulus plan will help create demand for some green technologies, but they won't necessarily move companies to transform their operations in ways that dramatically improve efficiencies and reduce pollution and waste.

Source : Businessweek.com