Thank you for taking the time to offer your opinion!

Let me start by offering a qualification – my experience is with small businesses with revenues under $100 million per year.

I can only speak to the companies I have worked with. And of those, all care but not a single one has come to me with action on sustainability. In this economic environment especially, it is viability of the firm that matters first. This is why many of my clients have held off on high ROI projects like lighting retrofits-the cashflow is needed for more critical areas of the business.

And, my opinion is different from yours on education. I feel passionately that part of my role is to educate my clients. I wish that this was taught in schools but it was not. My job is to translate these matters into ideas that the business owner can relate to. Time spent educating them is time well spent. I wish they cared about the environment like I do, but I recognize many do not. I want to convert them anyway.

My approach has generally been to get simple projects moving and use those simple projects to educate the company and change the culture. Those first projects are low cost and we use those results as a catalyst to further training and bigger changes. No generalization, just what works for me!

Do with these comments what you wish! And, thank you very much for taking the time to respond and I look forward to any further thoughts you have on the topic.

Eric

Our environment is not simply another issue that businesses & others should take an interest in, we are talking about natural systems that we ALL depend upon for life & meaning – no healthy environment, no natural resources – no business, no life. Period. It’s not up to environmentalists to educate business leaders, that should be done in schools1!