Sustainability and going green can be such a huge ordeal depending on your level of commitment and your business. We preach every day that it is not a short-term solution but one that takes time. It is also built on many different ideas and programs. I love looking closely to see what businesses are doing and how they are implementing things.
I was at my local Publix supermarket the other night and I made it to the back corner of the store where they had relegated all the organic food. The light was out on the organic cooler. I figured no one was watching it so the light could have just burned out but when I got close the light came on. I looked closer and I noticed there was a motion sensor on the top of the cooler. What an ingenious idea.
As I mentioned this is not the most visited section of the store so there is no need for lights to be on all the time. For a company that uses a lot of energy on lights and cooling they are probably looking at whatever ways they can save money.
Yes this is a simple solution and in the big picture it may not make a lot of sense but once you start adding them up the savings begin affecting the bottom-line.
My favorite story is where a Walmart employee suggested they take out the lights on the soda machines at their stores. To one store it may not make a huge difference but the company saved over a million dollars that year.
Take a look at your company and see if you can do anything different. Encourage your employees to suggest ideas, no idea is too small. Once you string some together the savings become obvious.
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