Rick Crawford Climate change is the greatest economic opportunity of the 21st Century. Smart businesses who position themselves as innovators by improving the environmental performance of their operations and products have everything to gain and little to lose, especially with the growing number of conscious consumers who want to buy products that align with their…
Category: Sustainability 101
Sustainability 101: What is Carbon Neutrality?
Rick Crawford Climate change is the greatest threat to fisheries, and many other species survival around the world, and according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), worldwide global emissions will need to be cut 55% by 2030 and carbon neutral by 2050. So, what does it mean to go carbon neutral?
Sustainability 101: What is Zero Waste?
Rick Crawford Since the Industrial Revolution, we have lived in what is called a “take, make, waste” society. We take a resource, make a good or product, and discard it once we are done. We see the results of this linear model everyday in the forms of plastic pollution in our oceans, fast-fashion and even…
Sustainability 101: What is a Carbon Footprint?
Rick Crawford Net income or “the bottom line” is generally a good measure for business performance, and the two best ways to improve the bottom line is 1) to cut operating expenses, such as energy costs; and 2) increase top line growth, such as gross sales of products. In sustainable business, we measure what is…
Sustainability 101: What is Green Building?
Rick Crawford We, as humans, have three basic needs: food, clothing and shelter. I’ll spend some time on food and clothing in future articles, but let’s take some time to discuss shelter. In the beginning we were hunter-gatherers and needed shelter to protect us from the elements such as snow and lighting and in the…
Sustainability 101: What is Climate Change?
Rick Crawford Being a sustainability consultant and in the field of sustainability for nearly a decade, I sometimes forget that I may be speaking a different language when talking about topics such as: the tragedy of the commons, sustainability, sustainable business and others. So, I am writing some blog articles about basic concepts and principles…