|
Our resources are finite and we need to recognise the signs of reaching our credit limit. We all understand what it means when our financial means are stretched to breaking point but having the environment stretched to breaking point is new and poorly understood. Our environment under stress includes things like the drought, fires, snowstorms and hurricanes or cyclones. More extreme weather events are consequences of climate change and, to prevent this getting worse, we need to work out how to live within our environmental means.
So how can we make best use of our resources without going all “alternative” and being uncomfortable in our lives or harming our business? This is going to vary for all of us because we all have different circumstances. I like to be warm, well fed and comfortable. I am quite happy to watch my 17 year old TV until I really need to replace it. Many others in the building I live in are not and I see several plasma boxes in the recycle bins in the basement every week.
I am not prepared to compromise on communication equipment because I need this to run my business effectively. We all have different priorities.
I changed from having a physical office with staff and infrastructure and now run a more environmentally friendly “virtual” office working from home. My colleagues and assistants also work from home and commute by phone, VOIP phone and email. They are based around Australia, in Canada and Romania. We reduce travel and all the associated carbon emissions. A lot of my clients are online which also reduces emissions. In fact, I made the change to online training as a response to client requests to save time and travel costs.
This is the way many businesses are moving all around the world. One of my daughters is a project manager in a multinational merchant bank. She is based in Adelaide and project manages virtual teams in Sydney and India. Some days she works from the Adelaide office, some she works from home which gives her flexibility to cope with sick kids. It makes sense from a financial, human resource management and environmental view. This obviously does not work for all businesses. The Mayor of New York suggested reducing the rush hour gridlock by staggering business start and stop times - some longer days and some work from home days.
I have been reviewing what I do in-house as well and was thrilled to get my last power bill (green power) and discover that it has reduced by around ¼ simply by turning off the big laser fax/printer except when it is actually being used. I generally turn it on 5 days for around 7 hours. The faxes are delivered as pdf files to my computer by email so I can still receive them around the clock. My main internet servers run on 100% wind power.
I bought an apartment in a recycled hospital and it is very well insulated. I have a 7 x 8m 2nd floor terrace outside with trees, fruit trees, and some vegetables in pots. I face north so I get the winter sun in to warm the place through the large windows and I don’t need to use the heater more than an hour at night and half hour in the morning. I built a verandah to shade the windows in summer so, again, I seldom use the air conditioner.
The other advantage of the apartment is that it is very close to centre of the city and has a bus stop at the door, which means I don’t have to use the car much. I also walk and ride my bike locally which is good for my health. Some aspects of apartment living drive me nuts and my dream is to find an old cottage similarly close to the city, retrofit the good bits and rebuild the rest to provide a really eco friendly house collecting rainwater, reusing greywater and using solar power.
In contrast, I watched a TV show called Carbon Cops visiting a family who released a huge 95 tons of CO2 annually. After 4 weeks of the Carbon Cops visits, they were down to a rate of 48 tons. The residents made no changes to their house, just changed to shorter showers, less electronic toys and then all turned off when not in use, plus they changed their driving habits. They felt good about themselves as a result.
Author: Jean Cannon, www.enviroaction.com.au
|
