By Going Green, Businesses Save Big

While going green is a great way for businesses, large and small, to establish themselves in the community as socially-responsible and caring for the environment, there are also huge monetary benefits.

Switching to cleaner technology and greener business practices can be achieved in many ways. Upgrading heating and cooling systems, installing LED lights, and reducing carbon emissions by replacing oil-fired boilers with biogas units, insulating buildings, and switching car fleets to electric or natural gas vehicles are just a few of the examples of measures that businesses can take.

There are many companies that are beginning to see the benefits of their efforts in going green.

Dow Chemicals, one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of chemical products in the world, brings in $60 billion in revenues annually.  Since the 1990's, the company calculated that is has saved $9 billion in reduced energy costs after only spending $2 billion investing in those efforts.

Google has invested heavily in going green. One month of using Google's products uses less energy per user than leaving a light on for three hours, and with taking into account the company's renewable energy offsets, Google's footprint equals zero impact on the environment.

Unilever is one of the largest consumer goods companies in the world and owns prominent brands that range from skin care, hair care, cleaning products, home products, and even food products. By 2020, Unilever plans to attain 100% of its agricultural raw materials from sustainable sources, as well as reducing the impact of its water, waste, and greenhouse gases by 50%.

Coca-Cola, which is one of the largest beverage manufactures in the world, is often an easy target for environmental issues. With well over a billion servings of Coca-Cola's beverages being consumed every day around the world, plastic bottles and aluminum cans are constantly creating a huge amount of waste, which has a massive impact on the environment. The company now finds itself in a race against PepsiCo, its main competitor, for the title of a 100% green label. Both of these companies are now developing plastic bottles made entirely out of plants.

In 2011, Coca-Cola was a sponsor of Nascar. At that time, Nascar claimed to have the largest recycling program in sports. Nascar expected to recycle about 12 million bottles and cans that season, which was twice as much as the 2010 season. Nascar has also made other efforts to become a more environmentally-friendly sport. Some examples of their initiatives include collecting used fuel, planting trees to offset carbon emissions, and deploying sheep to keep infield grass trimmed.  Until 2007, the cars used leaded fuel. In the 2011 season, Sunco Green E 15 ethanol blend was made the official fuel of Nascar. Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania had 40,000 solar panels installed in 2010, which spans 25 acres. The project cost about $15 million but now saves the track about $500,000 annually in energy costs and has produced electricity equal to 324,000 gallons of gasoline.

As these examples show, there are numerous ways to save energy, and save companies a lot of money at the same time.

Worldwide Energy is here to help your business save money on utility costs by providing a completely customized solution. Call one of our energy specialists today at 913-310-0705 to find out how much your business can save by going green.

Sources: Trust.org, New York Times, SeekingAlpha.com