Free Flip by Peter Sheahan Page B

machines from customers for recycling and has started to audit its suppliers for their recycling practices.
    Companies are beginning to make serious money from investments in being 'Fast, Good, Cheap AND Green'. Consider the following examples cited in the same edition of the Bulletin in April 2007:
Goldman Sachs invested US$1.5 billion into cellulosic ethanol, wind and solar, a gamble which has more than paid off.
Swiss RE, the Swiss insurance giant with revenues over US$24 billion, pioneered derivative-based products to hedge against the risks of climate change.
DuPont, once a poster child of environmental mismanagement, now receives US$5 billion of its US$29 billion in revenue from green end-use products such as chemical coatings for solar panels. It is developing a green replacement for nylon called bio-PDO, produces genetically engineered corn to make ethanol and has partnered with BP on a new fuel called biobutanol.
GE wind turbines are selling faster than they can produce them.
    The Building Code of Australia (BCA) has been amended to include guidelines for minimum energy efficiency in new buildings. It outlines a set of standards and restrictions for commercial buildings in terms of roof and window construction (for natural insulation), air conditioning restrictions, lighting, power usage and construction materials. Buildings are awarded stars to reflect their energy efficiency. Equally significant, the New South Wales Department of Energy in consultation with environment groups has introduced a rating system called the Australian Building Greenhouse Rating (ABGR). Even though it's the New South Wales Department of Energy, the system is administered nationally and measures the actual energy performance of a building.
    Westpac, NAB, Lend Lease and a host of other companies have spent tens of millions of dollars on environmentally friendly buildings. Lend Lease spent $112 million developing the first ABGR five-star building in Sydney, which opened in 2004 as its new head office. Lend Lease has also joined with Origin Energy in pioneering a scheme whereby construction companies can trade carbon credits achieved through energy efficiency measures included in buildings.
    Westpac also achieved a five-star ABGR rating for its new corporate headquarters in Sydney, and it makes enormous mileage from its environmental credentials. As discussed in the introduction, 'Getting Flipped!', Westpac launched its 'Every generation should live better than the last' campaign in a sixty-second television ad (sixty-second spots are pretty damn expensive). Three thirty-second ads followed, including one which boasted that Westpac was the only Australian bank to join with nine other banks around the world in signing the 'Equator Principles', an environmental charter committing them to financing only projects which don't destroy the environment.Westpac general manager for marketing and products Tim Harrington said this is about 'influencing people to consider Westpac's products and services because of its community and environment credentials'. At least he's honest.
    These companies also promote more minor things that they do: at Westpac headquarters in Sydney, they have taken to farming worms in the basement levels as an environmental support project, and NAB is growing over three thousand mother-in-law's tongue plants to clean the air at its Melbourne headquarters.
    One final example that I like: I had an opportunity to work with Google in the Silicon Valley, and was gob-smacked to hear that if a Googler buys a Prius or any other hybridengined car the company will give US$5000 towards the purchase, with some conditions around staying at the company and not selling the car the next day, of course. It is behaviour in perfect alignment with Google's mission statement: 'Don't be evil'.
    FGC + RESPONSIBLE
    Not being evil is also the order of the day, and not a moment too soon, I say. Corporate social responsibility, which includes both