Should companies start from scratch when going green, or tweak existing models?
It’s going to depend on company to company. A service company will be different from a manufacturing company. The best are the ones that really look for systemic answers, not just for a little green branding, but really challenge all their employees to do the greenest thing you can possibly do, which is: “pay attention.” And once you start paying attention, once you start thinking of not leaving the lights on, and not leaving the computer on, how much paper you use to package a box, or package a product, it’s amazing how much savings every company or every institution uncovers. Do you think our energy policy can change under the new administration, even toward concepts such as “clean coal,” which we know you’re not a proponent of? Coal, because of the price, is going to be a factor in our energy usage for the next decade at least. There are ways to clean it up. One is through carbon capture and sequestration. The problem is no one has done it on this scale and it’s extremely expensive.
