What are your top 3 take aways from this article? A few years ago, it seemed lik

Question

What are your top 3 take aways from this article?

A few years ago, it seemed like every business was touting efforts to "go green," promoting their use of renewable energy, non-polluting manufacturing processes, and increased energy efficiency. Some companies still do this--NBC features a Green Week every year--but you don't see as much marketing around companies going green anymore. This has led some to question whether it's all just a fad whose time has passed.

Definitely not. Look closer and you'll see that big companies are still placing an emphasis on going green. This evolution is perhaps now so common that highlighting it with special promotions doesn't set you apart. Restaurants such as Chipotle and Starbucks pride themselves on using sustainable, organic ingredients, while the most valuable company in the world, Apple, just committed nearly $1 billion to solar power. Then of course there's almost anything Elon Musk does, whether it be solar power, electric cars, or battery storage. If you're going to brag about going green, it may come across as ludicrous unless you're going to top these high profile companies (or you are overcoming a long history of not being very environmentally sound). Ultimately, companies like these have embraced more environmentally-friendly practices for many reasons.

It saves money in the long term.

Overhauling more traditional, less earth-friendly practices costs some money up front. No one denies that. However, in the long-term, the savings can be immense. For example, LED lights still cost more than incandescent bulbs. However, LED lights also last 40 times longer and use about one tenth of the energy. When you consider the savings on your energy bill and the fewer lights you'll have to replace, LED lights clearly are the cheaper option over the period of several years.

The same goes for using renewable energy. Alternative sources such as wind and geothermal are expensive now, but they keep getting cheaper as technology advances. The price of fossil fuels (especially oil) has come down over the last several months, but longer-term their price is expected to go up. The price of solar is now competitive with that of fossil fuels, and it may be cheaper than coal in the coming years. Committing to renewable energy today can help reduce your bill tomorrow.

Consumers recognize green companies.

A side effect of the glut of companies promoting their greenness a few years ago was that consumers sometimes became skeptical of these claims. That partly explains why there's less marketing curtained around environmental efforts these days; it's simply not effective anymore. Instead, consumers have learned to some extent how to evaluate how green a company is on their own.

We live in an age of unprecedented information. Consumers can go online and learn about the supply chain, energy use, and emissions of a company with relative ease. Surveys consistently show that more than half of consumers prefer to buy from companies that are environmentally friendly. With the transparency of the modern world, that means your company has to actually be green, not just seem green.

Going green can stimulate innovation.

Every company has to fight stagnation from time to time. It can be easy to get locked into a way of doing things and never question whether your process is really the most effective or efficient solution. One underrated benefit of going green is that it forces you to evaluate every aspect of your business and identify new, more efficient means of production. It can become addictive to look for (and find) money-saving innovations.

Going green doesn't just mean using renewable energy or more efficient light bulbs. Companies can reduce their energy usage and emissions drastically through simple things like optimizing delivery routes, streamlining the manufacturing process, and using less bulky packaging. A full audit of your energy usage and emissions can reveal these opportunities to cut costs and operate more efficiently.

It helps the environment.

This point is obvious, but bears repeating. Beyond the prudent economic reasons to go green, it's an important step in preserving the Earth for the long-term. Cutting emissions of carbon dioxide and other gasses reduces the impact of global climate change (97 percent of scientists confirm it is man-made), while cutting back on the use of paper and other materials in packaging can help protect important natural habitats.

These are just some of the main reasons why so many companies have embraced the concept of going green. It's not just good for the bottom line; it's good for the Earth. It's something that can make shareholders, and your own conscience, happy.

Explanation / Answer

One yr ago, my partner and i made up our minds to join the Go inexperienced in the city competitors. We mentioned the possibility in a espresso shop in Taft (Philippines) and had our Eureka! moment. What occurred next was once very overwhelming, and to this present day, I nonetheless are not able to suppose how the entire thing happened. I received learnings and insights along the best way. Proper now, you might be within the identical function of looking to crack the next tremendous concept. With this, I need to share with you the key insights I learned in my Go green within the city (Go inexperienced) experience.

Find gold. Begin with the basics and in finding the correct partner. It can be difficult to find the correct accomplice, like finding gold. I are not able to stress how principal this is seeing that this will set the complete tone of your Go green experience. You must ensure you don't find another you however someone who complements you and your ability sets. For our group, I handled the structure and shows (the macro) at the same time my associate dealt with the entire small print and the computations (the micro). It is usually foremost that each of you will have to work at the same % and are equipped of offering the equal great. You additionally continuously ought to be in sync with each and every other and on the same web page. Alignment may be very principal, and if in case you have the right associate, the alignment would come naturally. If you do not find the right accomplice for your possess, there may be still time to discover a companion by means of the Go inexperienced internet portal. Register and whole your profile to start your search.

Scope down. You can not clear up the entire world issues in a single case undertaking. When imparting your solution, you might be very restricted. My partner and that i selected cooling options as our target category. From there, we needed to pick which facility to cool. There are a lot of amenities that need cooling options, including data facilities, commercial high-rise structures, and residential homes. We chose a facility and studied the cooling standards of that facility, as well as different motives that influence the cooling concerns of the facility. This 12 months subject matters are very specific from last 12 months, however are nonetheless very huge in nature. Make sure that you've a prior working out of your scoped-down market. Also make sure the scope you decide upon is a tremendous market that behaves in a equivalent approach. This will be very worthy on your future assumptions in the case.
Be sensible. It is rather easy to get away with strategies, mainly when the competition requires innovation. When brainstorming your resolution, it is ok to offer out-of-this-world ideas, but recollect to synthesize your brainstorm after. Throughout synthesis, you have got to play devil's recommend to your ideas and make sure it is viable. The feasibility barrier you need to deal with first is technological feasibility. It need to be clear that your answer is possible considering no one is going to deal with your proposal severely if it sounds unrealistic. Provide literature, current practices, or situated innovations that may justify the feasibility of your challenge. Gigantic bonus if that you could naturally differentiate your venture from the on hand applied sciences.
Suppose constitution. You already have your quandary and your solution which is the meat of the undertaking, but it'll be useless if you can not reward it competently. While you gift your story, you need to constitution it well. The most important thing is that your clash has to be clear so with its context. After laying down the groundwork and revealing your conflict, provide an explanation for the gaps and possibilities before presenting the solution. The concept behind that is that the gaps and opportunities function the bridge to make certain that your solution aligns with the clash you might be offering. The final factor you have got to do is to justify why your answer is the nice solution. In Go inexperienced in the metropolis, it's foremost to justify your resolution in three features: fiscal influence, environmental have an effect on, and folks impact. To additional strengthen the have an effect on of your solution, which you can practice key performance indices comparable to payback interval (economic), reduction in emissions (environmental), and productiveness develop (people). It also is important to double determine and be certain that your story is effortless to fully grasp and that the story-line is cohesive and convenient to comply with.
Show simplicity. In speaking your inspiration, you have got to make it handy to recognize. For instance, you have got to provide an explanation for how your undertaking works. Do not put jargon that can simplest be understood with a previous advantage of the area matter. Ensure you utilize phrases which might be by and large understood. It's rough to beat this primarily if you are coming from a very technical history, but it gives you a significant area within the competition. Do not provide your resolution too many functionalities. It is higher that you simply limit the performance of the solution into one which, directly answers the drawback that you're trying to remedy. You could believe it looks good that to clear up a couple of hindrance, but it is less complicated to have an understanding of one obstacle-one answer as a substitute than three problems-three options.

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