You would have to have been living on Mars the past couple of years to not be aware of the greening of virtually everything in the name of environmental sustainability and cost savings.

As an individual, I am genuinely worried about climate change, the continuing damage to our environment, the ugly legacy we will leave our children and grandchildren, and the once-every-century storms that now seem to happen every couple of years.

Fuel costs have risen to a point where energy is a material portion of our family expenses. We recently traded our SUV for a smaller sedan, and around the house we are more conscious of the principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle. We know we can do more, and we understand it is up to us to make it happen.

As a business leader, however, I am not so confident about the practical steps required to green my business. While I am clearly not an expert in this area, I have given this topic serious thought, conducted basic research, and would like to share my insights in the form of a FAQ.

1.    Why bother greening our businesses?
2.    If oil prices drop to $100 again, will all this talk of adopting green practices blow over?
3.    Is there a return on investment (ROI)?
4.    Do customers really care about going green?
5.    Will customers pay more for green products and services?
6.    How green is your business now?
7.    What is “green washing”? What is “green sheen”?
8.    How green do we need to be?
9.    How can we create a green culture?
10.    What are some good greening business resources?

1. Why bother greening our businesses?
Many people, including our customers, would say this is a silly question at this point, given all that we know now. We must green our businesses for these reasons: it’s the right thing to do; our employees (existing ones and, even more importantly, recruits) will expect it; our customers and partners will soon, if they aren’t already, ask us to prove our efforts; and because there can be a return on investment. I wonder if General Motors executives have debated going green in their boardrooms over the past couple of years.

2. If oil prices drop to $100 again, will all this talk of adopting green practices blow over?
No. The price of oil may drop some; it might even fall to close to $100. While possible, this isn’t likely to cause the green stuff to blow over—or away. High oil prices are without a doubt a key catalyst for everything green because the impact is so universal, but I believe that adopting green practices is more fundamental now.

We all have a responsibility to lessen our impact on the environment, and more and more, our purchasing power will go to those companies that are on the same green page as we are.

3. Is there a return on investment (ROI)?
Yes. But when a business looks at being green in terms of getting off the grid by, for example, putting up a windmill, an energy-savings-based ROI can be measured in a decade or more. This ROI timeline is neither compelling nor practical for most small and medium-size businesses.
This isn’t the way to think, though; many greening methods and initiatives don’t require big capital expenditures. The ROI of greening your business should be measured in improved top and bottom lines, more solid employee and customer loyalty, market expansion, and, yes, reduced energy costs.

4. Do customers really care about going green?
Yes. In business-to-business segments it’s common for companies to demand that their partners and suppliers are green. Someday in the future, corporate responsibility, including being green, will become a standard procurement specification.

 In business-to-consumer segments, one could argue that the expectations here will rise even faster. Corporate brand managers are very concerned about their companies’ green reputation. Those businesses targeting customers that fall into the Gen X and Y categories had better be green already or going that way.

5. Will customers pay more for green products and services?
Yes—and no. In the short term, B2B and B2C companies will be able to charge a 5% to 10% premium, but not in the medium long term. Quality control and ISO certification were key business initiatives in the 1980s and ’90s. They were differentiators at first, but over time they became table stakes, part of the cost of doing business.

I believe that greening is different. Quality and ISO affected the delivery of our products and services only, not our environment, which could affect us all. When it comes to being green, customers will look for the high-value products and services that are also green—to put it another way, they won’t buy your products and services unless they are green.

While customers do in one way or another pay for quality, it is now table stakes and they have come to expect it. The same will go for green practices. For the next five to 10 years, businesses will be able to differentiate by offering excellent products that are also green.

6. How green is the business now?
This is a tough question. Without some type of globally accepted or defacto, neither green measurement nor documented comparables how can we tell how green we are. For now, beyond some rudimentary carbon footprint/greenhouse gas emission calculators, we are mostly on our own. I wouldn’t use this as an excuse, however; we need to proactively baseline our greenness in order to make measurable improvements and to obtain a measurable ROI. Every business needs a green plan of some kind and must continually refine it over time. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but more on that later.

7. What is “green washing”? What is “green sheen”?
Green washing describes the perception that consumers are being misled by a company regarding the environmental practices of the company or the environmental benefits of a company’s product or service.
Geen sheen describes organizations that attempt to appear that they are adopting practices beneficial to the environment. It should go with out saying that neither green washing nor green sheen would help the brand of any organization.

8. How green do we need to be?
We should all understand how green our businesses currently are and then use our best efforts over time to green our businesses even more. No one is expecting an overnight makeover, just as no one will tolerate a total disregard for green practices. Companies must make a genuine effort and share with key stakeholders how they are approaching greening their business.

How can they share? By putting together a list of green practices that have been implemented and those that are on the horizon. Employee involvement is vital to making sure the maximum impact is felt.
When it comes to key B2B customers, a proactive review of their website to better understand published policies relating to green (environmental, carbon footprint, green practices, etc.) will give you perspective on just how green you’ll need to be.

9. How can we create a green culture?
Be genuine. Tell your staff that you’re looking for ways to green your business and solicit their input. Set clear high-level guidelines that green initiatives that cost more than $TK to implement or will affect the performance of the business relating to customer satisfaction must first be approved. Make a list of greening opportunities, and when they have been implemented, give credit to the employees who came up with the idea and those who implemented it.

10. What are some good greening business resources?
• For the home and office: www.greenlivingideas.com
• Calculating your carbon footprint: www.carbonfootprint.com
• Helpful information as well as incentives to green your home and business: www.conservens.ca
• Information on carbon offsets: www.v-c-s.org
• Information on ISO green standards such as ISO14064: www.iso.org
• Useful for both businesses and individuals: www.upongreen.com

Dan MacDonald is the president and CEO of InNOVAcorp based in Halifax, NS. www.innovacorp.ca