We have been having a lot of discussions at Green Collar recently with companies involved in helping Vehicle Fleets become more efficient.  The great thing about this area of the Green Collar Economy is that it is an easy area to get a great business ROI (which CFO’s love) and a area where a huge amount of carbon emissions can be eliminated (which is good for all of us).  This short video highlights how quickly both of these benefits come to fruition when dealing with fleet vehicles.

If you haven’t yet, you should check out the White Papers and Case Studies on GreenCollarEconomy.com reviewing the different approaches and benefits to improving fleet efficiency, saving money and lowering carbon emissions in companies operating fleet vehicles (I’m looking at you municipalities, delivery companies, repair companies, etc.). Also, check out the huge directory of green fleet solutions.

Building efficiency may be the most visible low-hanging fruit in the race to become more sustainable as a nation and a planet, but with the ROI available to fleet managers going green, this area is going to get hot and get hot fast.

OK, so although I spent yesterday afternoon thinking about the giant floating plastic continent and feeling overwhelmed, I am feeling much more like my optimistic self today. However, this is not blind optimism that ’science’ is going to figure this out. I am feeling better because I was just visiting the Recycling White Paper section on GreenCollarEconomy.com and noticed that hundreds and hundreds of business people are downloading these documents while looking for best practices for ther companies.

I like to believe that they are doing this for two reasons - first, humans run companies and deep down, even the greediest captain of industry wants to protect the environment; second, they know they are throwing good money after bad by simply throwing out so much trash. Here is a great example. Bayer Healthcare has lowered their garbage disposal bill by over $500,000/year and diverted over 70% of their waste from landfill into the recycling stream - all while making their business more profitable.

We need more businesses to wake up and start looking at sustainability as a strategic opportunity. There are thousands of ways to make ROI-generating investments in sustainability that will make a business stronger in more ways than just the short-term bottom line.

Occasionally when I am working out on my cycling trainer, I bring my laptop downstairs and watch a TED video. If you are not familiar with TED, you should check it out. However, on this particular occasion I watched a video that did not so much inspire as it did daunt and depress. I tweeted several months back about an article I read about the floating plastic garbage dump that has been accumulating in the Pacific Gyre for the last 20 years. It is almost unbeliveable than an area of the pacific twice the size of Texas could have an average of 6X as much plastic in it as it does plankton.

This area of floating and submerged plastic does not biodegrade, it just gets smaller and smaller and ends up in our food supply. As Nicholas Kristoff wrote about in this Sunday’s New York Times, 92% of Americans have the chemicals from these plastics in thier urine. Certainly not only from the Pacific Gyre garbage continent, but we have plenty of other plastic that we consume on a daily basis….by the way, it’s made with synthetic estrogen. This brings me back to the TED video….take a look and let me know if you have any bright ideas. We have to go from capturing and recycling 5% of our plastic to 95% plus and we need to do it in a hurry.

I read a great quote in The Daily Climate

Author and reporter Dianne Dumanoski noted in her recent book, The End of the Long Summer, that the only thing certain about the coming century is “its immense uncertainty.”
“It will take conscious effort to resist taking refuge either in despair – in the conviction that ‘it’s too late’ – or in the alternative, to bask in groundless, sunny optimism that ‘we’ll figure out something, because science always does.’ “

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am about as optimistic person as you will meet. Looking at something like this can take a little wind out of your sails. It is another huge problem to deal with that is going to require billions or trillions of dollars - like we don’t have enough of those right now.