“There are plenty of businesses
masquerading as being
environmentally friendly. It’s good PR
to look green regardless of whether
or not one is actually green”
First, there are those who can and will go green straight away. And, in a globalised economy this means legislative changes in
Perhaps their margins are sufficiently high that they can swallow numerous countries – one country acting alone will just make its
the costs. Maybe they have a monopoly or quasi-monopoly industry uncompetitive and put it out of business.
position and can pass the costs on to the consumer, who can’t
go elsewhere. Or, the owner takes a principled position and says
Nevertheless, there are plenty of businesses masquerading as
‘to hell with the consequences, even if it does mean being worse
being environmentally friendly. It’s good PR to look green regardless
off financially’.
of whether or not one is actually green. And, this trend is set to
continue because most consumers, most journalists and most
Second, there are those who suddenly find ‘the moment’. Finding politicians are scientifically illiterate.
the moment is more an art than a science, and it arises when
there’s a shift in consumer attitudes. Tesco seems to reckon it’s
This illiteracy is easy to exploit. Just how environmentally friendly
found the moment with plastic carrier bags. Suddenly, so Tesco
are hybrid cars for example? Most people seem to go by the
seems to perceive, consumers will no longer see the withdrawal of
impression that because they run partially on electricity hybrid
plastic carrier bags as having a purely negative impact, but rather
cars are low emission. Indeed, though there are features about
the collective psyche has changed to finding this desirable.
hybrid cars that do help reduce emissions, these can be quite
subtle. The electricity they run on was produced somewhere
Third, there are those who can only go green with government and unless that came from a low emission, sustainable source
help. They are the ones who need a level playing field, so their then all that’s happened is the point of pollution has been
competitors are faced with the same obligations and costs at the shifted from the moment of consumption to the moment of
same time. Just as our importer of TV sets needs his government to energy production.
reduce the import tariff on TV sets, or stamp out the opportunities
for corruption, so the would-be green business needs legislative
Indeed, we are even being encouraged to create more pollution
changes to ensure being sustainable does not present competitive
in the name of greenness! Many businesses see going green
disadvantages.
as a wonderful opportunity to get consumers to buy their latest
model. How much CO2 is emitted in the production of a hybrid
It is this last group in which most businesses reside. Even if car? Take, for example, that new fridge you are being exhorted
they wanted, they couldn’t afford the cost, disruption and/or the to buy because it uses less power. How about the carbon
consumer backlash that sustainability would involve. Their only emissions created in manufacturing it? The harsh truth is that
hope is regulatory change imposing modified business practices many of us would create less overall pollution continuing to run
and models right across their industry. our less than perfectly efficient existing products than switching
13 | ecoexecutive
Acumen Business.indd 13 18/4/08 15:20:30
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