DuPont, for instance, was able to cut its energy use by 7 percent in four years. In the process, it slashed greenhouse gas emissions by 72 percent, and increased its output by 30 percent. This made stockholders very happy.

Linda Fisher, duPont's vice president of Environment, Health and Safety, says, "What started as an effort to address our carbon footprint has turned out to be financially a very good thing."

DuPont is capitalizing on what Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute calls "one of America's most abundant natural resources" - energy efficiency. It is much cheaper to buy efficiency, than it is to buy energy. When industry becomes more efficient, it saves not only natural resources, but also financial resources.

While our government is slow to act to reduce climate change, the business community is taking the lead. More than 90 major international corporations and organizations, including Citigroup, General Electric, Rolls-Royce, Volvo and the World Council of Churches issued a statement last year calling on our government to cap carbon emissions at 60 to 80 percent by 2050, and legislate energy efficiency.

"We think green means green," says Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric. Immelt is also a founder of the group which is called United States Climate Action Partnership.

A Fort Lauderdale, Fla., franchise called Pizza Fusion started out as a green company from the beginning. All Pizza Fusion restaurants are in LEED certified green buildings and their organic pizzas are delivered by a fleet of hybrid cars. They have integrated efficiency into their business by eliminating waste where they find it. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

For example, Pizza Fusion shops reclaim the heat radiating from the ovens to heat hot water for the faucets. This eliminates the need for a hot-water heater and the cost of running it. Pizza Fusion also recycles and reuses materials like detergent bottles made into countertops, and offers incentives to customers to bring back the pizza box for recycling.

Here are some ways that businesses are reducing their carbon footprints and going green:

- Generate income from waste instead of feeding landfills at $100 per ton. General Mills - makers of Cheerios - was paying to haul off tons of oat hulls to the landfill when it realized that it could be burned as biomass fuel. This led to an 86 percent reduction in solid waste and created income for the company.

- Think "cradle to the grave" when designing products to reduce wasting natural resources. Dell Computers has started a "take back" program encouraging consumers to return obsolete technology to the manufacturer to be remade into new gadgets. This can help reduce the estimated 4,000 tons of technology that wind up as waste every hour around the world.

- Reduce packaging to save money, resources and transportation costs. Unilever has reduced its packaging size by half by concentrating its liquid detergent. This saved 1.3 million gallons of diesel fuel, 10 million pounds of plastic resin and 80 million square feet of cardboard.

- Teach consumers. Fiat is introducing EcoDrive, a Microsoft program that records auto emissions and fuel consumption onto a USB flash-drive key. Drivers can download the info on their home computer and learn how to change driving habits to lower emissions.

- Reduce overhead. Sun Microsystems started an Open Work program 10 years ago allowing half of its work force, or 20,000 employees to work from home. This saved the company $67.8 million in real estate costs, prevented nearly 29,000 tons of CO2 emissions from commuters, and increased worker productivity by 34 percent.

- Incentives work. Timberland gives special parking spaces and $3,000 incentives to employees who buy hybrids. Timberland also introduced a "Trash Is My Bag" tote made from recycled plastic bottles. The totes cost $5.50 each or come free with a $100 purchase and guarantee 10 percent off your next purchase to encourage reusing.

- Factor in the cost of natural resources. JPMorgan Chase is one of the first companies to realize that people were flushing their most precious resource, water, down the toilet. The banking conglomerate has installed a giant rainwater collection system on its Manhattan skyscraper that provides the flush water for the building's water-efficient toilets. This saves 30 percent of its previous water use, and saves money.

- Encourage customers to develop green habits. Some stores no longer give away plastic bags with each purchase. At Aldi's grocery chain, one of the largest retail chains worldwide, you pay 20 cents or more per plastic bag. Customers quickly got in the habit of bringing reusable totes to the store. Each tote will replace 416 plastic bags in its lifetime. That's the equivalent of enough petroleum to drive a car 3,328 miles and will save $62.14 in disposal costs.

Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning sustainable artist and writer who lives in a green home in the Hudson Valley of New York.

© Copley News Service

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