A recent report published by The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) claims to be the most rigorous study ever into energy efficiency in buildings, taking four years and $15m to complete.

The report (you can read the details here) was commissioned as a result of some worrying facts: buildings today represent 40% of the world’s energy demand (source: OECD) and the report concludes that the demand for energy is predicted to grow by 45% through to 2050. Although commercial buildings only represent 33% of the energy demand, the technology exists to create or convert commercial buildings to zero demand and zero CO2 output.

The potential outputs for commercial enterprises who take action around this topic are simply staggering. If you could slash a realistic 60% off your energy usage from external suppliers, just calculate what that means to your bottom line.

Organisations considering the impact on their business, next year, of the Carbon Reduction Commitment should investigate the solutions available right now.

You will almost certainly not be able to negate any carbon trading liability for the 2010/2011 period but investment into energy reduction technology today could save those organisations (of which there are some 5,000) that will fall foul of their CRC ceiling significant amounts in the next financial period.

So what is standing in the way of, what seems at first sight, a genuine corporate no-brainer?

“Green” buildings have already been erected in various parts of the world but current cost structure prevents widespread adoption by general contractors.

As has been evident from projects like the Empire State Building project, there is also apathy/resistance from building tenants/owners based on ignorance of the true state of energy affairs and the long term benefits of starting work today.

The project was also a lesson in the lack of political leadership that will certainly be required, both financially as well as ideologically, in order to create progress. Regrettably, the workings of the political systems across the western hemisphere are not designed to deliver results and the emerging nations will not follow a non-existent lead.

So there are certainly major challenges to be overcome, but they are mostly attitudinal. If recent times have taught us anything, investment criteria must certainly be revisited and adjusted for a more sustainable return-on-investment calculation and is eminently ‘doable’.

The project proposed by the WBCSD will comprise three phases, each producing reports that, together, will form a roadmap to transform the building industry.

The first report will document existing green building successes and setbacks, the second will identify the full range of present and future opportunities, and the third will present a unified industry strategy for realizing those opportunities by 2050, specifically in China, India, Brazil, the U.S. and the E.U.

Each report will take one year to complete and involve hearings and conferences with building contractors and suppliers, sustainability experts, government representatives, regulators, utility officials and others.

It strikes me that the clock is ticking and any organisation seeking answers to the question of exactly how long they can continue with business-as-usual should be getting involved with this project. It does not appear that there is anything to lose other than a big chunk off your bottom line operating costs.

The news this week has been full of SustainabilityLive!, or at least the green press has and the mainstream will follow once the MP expenses scandal no longer sells copy. Some good came out of it but, regrettably, a lot of outdated and misinformed truisms were paraded for the sake of making a splash.
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Attending a sustainability workshop the other evening on the theme of remote working and its associated challenges (another extremely useful event run by Ashridge Business School together with InterfaceRAISE), I was struck by what the guest speaker, Roland Fristch, VP and Head of Global Services at Danfoss, proposed as the key differentiator between organisations that make this work and those who don’t; leadership and management.
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We’ve covered the topic of water here before but just this week there is recognition from a government body, Envirowise, and so, I suppose, from those in the hot seat that we’re verging on a ‘situation’ with our water supply.
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It appears that that there is a growing desire for an economic model (or at least on a very small scale) that challenges the development of the global economic one that many feel has brought to us to the place we are at today.

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The word game continues; I read a post on another blog the other day from a green consultant challenging the use of the word ‘sustainability’….

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I’m not a great fan of most business books. It’s always struck me that if the ideas expounded therein are so blindingly brilliant, why is the authors writing about it instead of developing a great business, or ‘walking the talk’?
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The IT sector has been progressively more and more under pressure to ‘green’ its act; and rightly so. This is a sector that burns natural resources like it’s going out of fashion (which it rapidly is!).

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I am indebted to Nicolas Caesar of Ashridge Consulting for an article he referred me to recently called “Weathercocks and Signposts” (just Google it, it’s free to download), published by the WWF.

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The CBI’s director of business environment, Neil Bentley, was recently heard to say that getting to a thriving low-carbon economy would be a long, hard slog but was necessary and that the right Government policy, IT systems and training for the next generation of workers will be key ingredients.
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