The biggest buzz-phrase in commerce since "teamwork," Green has developed into a socio-cultural and economic topic that has the potential to rewrite human existence. At least it's touted as being such by countless organizations. However, it's scoffed at by an equal amount of detractors who say it's an idealistic fad. But what is it?
At its root a Green economy is simply an efficient economy. One in which ALL inputs are quantified, valued, and used efficiently. The keystone word is all because ideally this includes every possible input. This is the exciting part of Green economies. The part that garners newspaper headlines about waste firms not using landfills or food producers getting amazing yields with GPS applied fertilizer. All means non-financial accounting is becoming an increasingly thick part of company 10-Ks. The accountants dream of being able to quantify, track, and make decisions from all the data affecting a firm is now being realized. In example, Monsanto can calculate the payoff schedule of their financial support for local bee farms that end up fertilizing their client's fields. Or Target Corp. reporting on the tentative social capital built by giving 5% of their after-tax profit away. Traidcraft Inc, in the U.K., claims to have audited social statements and DOW Chemical has been quantifying what it calls "ecosystem services" for years. So is all of this just pleasing corporate Green jargon or is it a genuine shift in corporate capital?
I believe much of the effort is valid and is the result of business evolution. Firms are not pursuing Green because it's sexy, though it's often written as such in the papers, but because it saves them Green. Rather they are fulfilling their commercial credo; to build widgets in the most efficient manner. Because of technological advances, organizations can increasingly account for all the factors governing their business, which leads to efficiencies and stories of the Green Economy. So I applaud these actions, but measure my enthusiasm against the numbers that make this a New economy rather than a Green one. Green sounds sexier than New, but New is closer to Perfect Competition than ever before.
Further reading from the UN's Environmental Program and Global Reporting Initiative…
A Final Dash of Salt...
The father of efficiency. Rube Goldberg!
The father of efficiency. Rube Goldberg!
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