This post will be a short one, a kind of continuation of last week’s post, in which I suggested that the government could give companies a good, swift kick in the pants and get them to green their operations.
Then I was brutally beaten down by the free marketers! 
Seriously, I think what Sun Microsystems in Broomfield, Colorado (where I live), has done with its new datacenter is a shining example to other companies elsewhere.
And I think I didn’t express myself quite clearly enough last week. I didn’t really mean the government should “[force] companies to buy from recyclers.” I meant the government should set targets for the companies (say, by 2010, 10% of materials or furnishings in each new Hilton Hotel should come from recycled products) and leave Hilton to figure out the details.
I see business as being inherently conservative. I don’t think most companies will go green easily. It’s just too easy to stay with the status quo (and do a little greenwashing on the side).
Am I being unjust to business? Can you give me examples of other businesses that don’t need to be kicked in the pants?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
It wasn’t meant to be brutal, Beth.
Businesses meet government standards for pollution reduction all over America, which is more than I can say for many people. I can give you one anecdotal example of businesses way ahead of the pollution curve. In the auto repair business, we’ve always recycled waste oil. One of the many reasons besides the mess is other businesses picked up the waste oil for free, because it could be recycled for a profit. When the government got involved, the profit margin was reduced in taxes for the pick-up businesses, and we now have to pay for pick-up. I still allow anyone in the neighborhood to drop off personal quantities, but most repair shops had to discontinue the practice we used to do as a matter of course. Businesses are not charities, and regulating them into bankruptcy does no one any good, especially the people employed by them. A rule of thumb for me when a politician talks about regulating or taxing a business with some new Robin Hood tactic, I always search their background to find out if they ever in their life held down a real job, or owned a business. I’ll leave it to your imagination and your own research as to the results. 
Bernard, I didn’t really think it was brutal, but I was a little frustrated, because right now there is great potential for businesses to reduce their use of materials and (in many cases) save money in the process. It just seems so hard to get them to do it.
I also see a great need for everyone (not just businesses) to stop using and/or wasting so much. Our society has become used to the notion that you dream something up and you make it and you don’t really think about how to use fewer materials or less energy in the process. That’s an add-on, if it’s done at all. I believe that must change, but it seems to be happening so slowly. That’s why I want government to set standards.
Nope, don’t think you’re being unjust at all (well, maybe the part about the brutal beat-down… ) Business is inherently conservative, and very much interested in maintaining the status quo. That’s pretty much the definition of business.
But that’s why I don’t think government regulation is the answer. Introducing outside controls onto what is ideally a self-regulating system is almost always a mistake. The answer is to make it profitable to be “green.” Profitablity trumps conservatism every time.
Being green now has the reputation of being more expensive and therefore less profitable. What ideas do you have to make it profitable?
Well, at the risk of sounding like a “tax-and-spend liberal”… If you substitute a carrot for your stick, and enact incentives instead of penalties, it would still be government mucking about in the free market, but at least it would overcome the knee-jerk reaction of conservative business against anything that sounded like it would cut into the bottom line.
Also, as I said last week, if us consumers could be convinced to pay more for green products and services, businesses would be falling all over themselves to get in line for that.
Here’s another idea I’ve heard mentioned lately: A Carbon Tax. All goods and services carry a tax calculated on the cost to the environment of producing and delivering those goods and services.
Being green doesn’t just have the reputation of being more expensive, it generally is more expensive. Someone has to pick up that check, and that someone is going to be us, one way or another.
I don’t think anyone could argue with this at all. If there are not some kind of measures in place, what is the motivation for these businesses to start doign something to help the environment?
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My feelings exactly.
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