The Corporate World’s ‘Green’ Industrial Revolution

June 19, 2013- While governments have been slow to jump on the green bandwagon, the corporate side of the fence is looking several shades greener, according to a recent report from Forbes. Increasingly, businesses across all industrial sectors are taking a closer look at issues like energy efficiency and renewable energy – and making big changes.

Companies are realizing that green solutions can improve their bottom lines. If they use resources efficiently, they save money while protecting themselves against increasingly volatile commodity prices and tighter environmental regulations.

Examples of this green industrial revolution shaping the corporate landscape include:

  • Chemicals giant DuPont announced cumulative net savings from its energy bills of more than $3 billion in the last decade. The CEO of DuPont talks regularly about tackling climate change by “picking up $100 bills from the factory floor.”

 

  • Retail giant Wal-Mart’s officially-stated goals are “to be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy,” “to create zero waste,” and “to sell products that sustain our global resources and the environment.” Wal-Mart is recognized as being ruthlessly efficient in reducing costs. Wal-Mart’s sustainability program is directly driving this agenda hard across its supply chain and its competitors.

 

  • Ford’s River Rouge car plant, for many years the largest factory on Earth, is now the greenest factory on Earth (with the largest green “living” roof). Ford is working toward “zero process water consumption,” “100 percent renewable energy,” “zero solid waste to landfill,” and more.

The scale of investment globally in renewable sources of energy today is beyond the wildest dreams of the environmental movement a decade or two ago, Forbes reports. Total investment in renewable energy reached $257 billion in 2011. As of 2012, renewable energy accounts for almost half of new electricity capacity installed, costs are continuing to fall, and according to a 2011 projection by the International Energy Agency, solar-power generators may produce most of the world’s electricity within 50 years.

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