Michelle Rodger: The green business hothouse flowers

Published on Saturday 5 December 2009 13:13

AS WORLD leaders descend on Copenhagen this week to pontificate over climate change and the end of the world as we know it, there are businesses forging ahead and tackling environmental issues without waiting for instruction from global summits.

"Green" businesses are the next big thing.

Take printing, for example. Traditionally environmentally unfriendly, printing is linked to deforestation, a huge wastage of paper, the heavy use of energy and chemical pollution from the inks disposed of in the process.

But it doesn't have to be like that. There's a family printing business in Glasgow which has adopted an environmentally-friendly approach and is making money as a direct result.

The premises of PR Print & Design were designed with energy efficiency in mind. Owner Phil Brady installed a water recycling boiler for heating, reactive lighting and state-of-the-art equipment to reduce costs and make paper savings. The reduction in waste paper paid for the new machinery, which produced better quality work and ensured happier clients.

He also decided, as part of a commitment to become carbon neutral, to offset emissions. He extended that to measure the impact of clients' printed documents and offsets that too.

The greening of his customers' businesses is a unique selling point and Brady says his team work hard to educate as much of the marketplace as possible. "We would like more companies to embrace the fact that greener production techniques and green suppliers can reduce costs and help grow customer loyalty."

The philosophy has clearly worked in practice for Brady's business. The past 12 months have seen more than 120 new clients and sales growth of approximately 14 per cent.

Construction is another sector that has a significant impact on the environment, but Powerwall Systems has revolutionised it, designing and building eco-efficient properties while taking cost and environmental impact out of the process.

The Powerwall team has designed the first sustainable frame system to be 100 per cent recyclable, and it has proven to be 85 per cent more thermally efficient than traditional construction. It has also reduced CO2 emissions in manufacture by up to 70 per cent.

Paul McIntyre, Powerwall's architectural manager, says there are a number of financial benefits. Increased energy efficiency, through the use of green insulation, solar water-heating, grey-water harvesting and low energy light fittings result in reduced heating bills and lower environmental impact.

Powerwall exports across the world and has opened a manufacturing plant in Italy.

Travel probably has one of the biggest impacts on the environment, and businesses can rack up substantial costs and leave an equally substantial carbon footprint by having staff hoof around the globe for meetings. New technology means that isn't always necessary.

Cisco has developed Telepresence, a high-definition video and spatial audio system that links up two rooms to look like a boardroom table, even though they may be on different sides of the globe. This has saved Cisco $365 million (219m) in travel costs and $137m (82m) in productivity savings as well as 197,273 metric tons of emissions.

In fact, members of the Climate Change Group who can't make it to Copenhagen this week, or who chose not to for green reasons, will be linked up via Telepresence.

The use of technology clearly brings the biggest opportunities to the environmentally aware business. Systems that control heating, lighting and powered machinery can make large cost savings to a business and also reduce carbon output.

But you don't have to spend a fortune to make your business greener. Polly Purvis, executive director of ScotlandIS, says: "We have so many technological tools now, from Skype to high-definition conferencing, which mean we don't have to travel to every meeting. As well as the cost and environmental savings, the work/life balance benefit can be enormous."

Importantly, she adds, the technology is now within the reach of all organisations.

Back to Copenhagen. How many politicians does it take to save the world? None. It takes effort at a micro level, from businesses, large and small, selling green, buying green and making money from being green. It could save the planet and the economy too.