Last week, the Financial Times reported the greatest drop in carbon emissions in 40 years. What was the greatest contributing factor? The International Energy Agency cited the recession as the primary cause. The decrease in consumption and spending limited international trade and industrial production.
Emissions decreased overall 2.6 percent and 3.8 percent in the US since November 2007. Unfortunately, the decrease is only temporarily. Carbon dioxide emissions will most likely go up in the next couple of years, but hopefully will take a while to return to their previous highs.
This is a great opportunity for governments to pass carbon restrictions and subsidize investments in clean, efficient technology. For companies trying to minimize the bottom-line, recycling waste products and implementing more energy efficient industrial processes. This has potential to set them up in an advantageous position for the impending economic recovery.
Take Interface for example. The company is currently the largest producer of both residential and commercial modular carpet. In 1994, the chairman, Ray Anderson, pledged to reduce the environmental impact of it’s products. By minimizing waste, the managed to maintain production despite decreasing the amount of base materials. The idea being that if you can increase revenue while keeping expenses steady, profits will as a result increase.
Since then, Interface has made several new initiatives including carpet leasing (to reduce waste) and full sustainability by 2020 a core part of their mission. While the company was hit hard in the recession like most of everyone else, their ability to produce more with less allows them a greater flexibility in the realm of cost cutting.
It is true that many companies resist changing to more sustainable processes – the initial costs are too great and the long-term benefits can be hard to predict. Right now, however, businesses are scrambling to survive and reposition themselves. Government programs that reward investing in new technologies (as opposed to penalizing them for polluting) can have a greater effect than at any other time and will convince companies to do what’s best for both their shareholders and stakeholders.
