"Green" Winners

“A recent A.T Kearney analysis revelas that during the current economic slowdown, companies that show a “true commitment to sustainability appear to outperform their industry peers in the financial markets. Green Winnders: The performance of sustainabilyt – foucsed companies during the financial crises.

“As companies cut costs to get through the current global economic slowdown, there is often a temptation to abandon recent forays into sustainability. Yet a new A.T Kearney analysis finds that companies committed to corporate sustainability practices are achieving above-average performance in the financial markets during this slowdown. So before tossing out those sustainability practices and initiatives, it might be wise to first determine the real value of the efforts – especially the possible rewards for staying the course.”

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Capturing the Green Advantage for Consumer Companies

"At its core, the green movement is about reducing waste and minimizing our impact on the environment. Companies that translate these goals into a holistic approach to offering differentiated green products and bringing down costs across the entire value chain have been rewarded with higher margins and market share."

Wal-Mart: "In 2004, when Wal-mart became the largest private user of electricity in the United States and one of the largest owners of private truck fleets, the company decided to rethink its practices. It would up initiating a series of highly visible sustainability programs that are driven from the top down. For example the company recently announced that it would require its suppliers in China to adhere to environmental standards." 

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Corporate citizenship: Profiting from a sustainable business

“The road to profitable 21s-centure corporate citizenship is anything but smooth. For some companies the journey starts with a shock. In DuPont’s case, it as being labeled America’s number one polluter. For Wal-mart’s Mr. Scott, it was the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina. Such events force companies to take a long, hard look at the way they do business. Having confronted the harsh reality, they can then proceed to reinvent themselves.”

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Helping Green Products Grow

GE: "Ecomagination Initiative. In 2005, GE launched its Ecomagination initiative with the broad objectives of meeting environmental goals such as clean water, renewable energy, and reduced emissions…As part of the Ecomagination campaign, GE also undertook to make its own operations more environmentally sustainable. Since then, the company has managed to sustain positive growth for its portfolio of energy-efficient and environmentally advantageous products and services – with revenues forecast to rise 21 percent from 2007 to $17 billion in 2008 – while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations, which are projected to be down by about 8 percent in 2008 from the 2004 baseline."

“Corporations can reap a number of benefits by going green. Consider the success of compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs), for example, in 2005 sales of CFLs accounted for less than 5 percent of the total lightbulb market. Only two years later – 2007, the year the public woke up to the looming threat of climate change – they captured an estimated 20 percent of it, according to the US EPA. Companies, such as GE, that sell CFLs have increased their revenues, enhanced their brands, and strengthened their competitive positions."

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