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Letter to the editor

Sustainability gets a green light

By CHRISTINA REXRODE, Times Staff Writer
Published October 5, 2007

Going green is good for business, says Clive Roux, founder of Atlanta's Green LLC, a three-employee consulting firm that helps companies become environmentally sustainable.

Roux, 48 and a native of South Africa, spoke in Sarasota on Thursday at a sustainability summit cosponsored by the Ringling College of Art + Design and the Maddux Business Report.

In an interview, Roux talked about which businesses have seen the light, environmentally speaking, and where Florida fits in the green movement.

The green movement has gained momentum in previous decades, only to die off. What's different this time around?

If you go back to the '60s, the people who were concerned about the environment were action groups, like Greenpeace. But now there are many more stakeholders: The consumer is very concerned, shareholders are concerned. Coca-Cola announced in September that they are going to build a recycling plant for all of their bottles. I'm not sure they got forced into that, but they definitely have the impression that they need to do something in a responsible way. e_SClBWhy are more people concerned this time?

There's mounting evidence that the way we are living is not sustainable for the next 50, 60 years, and now those issues are being documented in a better way. Al Gore, for example, has done a pretty good job of making the information available in a mass, accessible way. Or at the beginning of this year, every major magazine had a sustainability or a green cover.

Also, the green movement is not just a moral issue any more, right?

Right. Sustainability is a very smart way to focus your innovation as a company. They (the companies) are going to be better for the environment, but they're also going to improve their business, whether it's in terms of efficiency or the company's image.

In the past two or three years, I can hardly find a company that has not dealt with sustainability in some way. But these are all big businesses. When you get down to a 20-person outfit, I'm not sure how they feel. They might be interested, but they don't feel like they can do anything yet.

What are some Florida companies that you admire?

Florida's very much a service-based industry, and producers have been doing more on the sustainability side than service companies. So that's one reason there would be fewer examples in Florida. But service companies can become sustainable, mostly through reducing their energy footprint. One example is a server company that powers its whole server farm through green energy.

Does going green ever backfire on a company?

If you look at DuPont and Shell, at their earlier attempts to go green, many of those didn't work out. Both companies got pushed that way by environmental groups. In both cases, they started out very defensive - "We're right and you're wrong" - and that didn't work out because there were the facts for people to look at. So companies that go this route must be prepared to be very transparent, and both of those companies are shining examples of that now.

Christina Rexrode can be reached at crexrode@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8318.

[Last modified October 4, 2007, 22:43:37]