trippenbach
tanith6227
rustedangel
Pale HorseBig News
Kyoto Protocol? Old news. Now there’s the Tokyo declaration:
Sony and other big multinationals today committed themselves to drastically reducing their carbon footprint and urged other businesses to join the fight against global warming.
Twelve companies, including Nokia, Nike, and Hewlett-Packard, signed up to the Tokyo declaration, promising to “take all necessary action” to limit the increase in the global average temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.
Interesting development, don’t you think? Especially when you compare to a lot of people’s image of greedy super-corporations, destroying the environment to enrich themselves . . . What’s going on here?
Filed under: news | Tagged: Climate Change, Nokia, Sony, Tokyo
We’re seeing proof that while an individual person is smart and rational, “alot of people” are stupid bastards. It is in everyone’s best interest to do what we can to limit the harm we inflict on the environment and slow the degradation of the biosphere. It’s hard (and pointless) to get rich if there’s no one around to enjoy it.
This move also has the advantage of being politically clever; the environment is a hot topic, and corporations that are viewed as being environmentally responsible generally enjoy better sales and stronger customer loyalty. If these companies can find less damaging methods of making their goods - and can produce new electronics and other goods that are themselves more environmentally-friendly, then everyone wins.
…but will it be adhered to?
Well, if Tanith is correct - and I think he is - then yes.
Imagine you had to choose between two products of equal quality and equal price. The only difference is that product A has been manufactured and shipped in an environmentally responsible manner and product B has left lots of pollution in its wake to you. Which do you pick?
I think the answer is self-evident to us in this thread, and I think it would be to a lot of consumers out there. We’re not that unusual now. People think about this sort of thing.
Now, take it one step further: if product A is 5% more expensive, would you still go for it? Would you pay 10% more? How about 15%? How much of a premium are you prepared to pay to buy ‘environmentally responsible’ products?
Some people would go quite far indeed. In the case of vegetables, people willingly fork out 50% and even 100% premiums to buy organic vegetables instead of the normal kind. There’s a lot of money to be made there.
There are also cases where the environmentally responsable product is cheaper. Aluminum, for instance. You save 95% of the energy costs when recycling compared to mining new ore. As a corp, you can pass that saving on to your customers and gain greater market share, or use it to increase your profit margins. (In the case of a 95% cost saving, you can prolly do a little of both!)
Finally, let’s not forget the potential of simply making money off green tech. For instance, imagine a laptop you never have to charge. It could make electricity from the energy released when you strike the keys as you type, and from the bobbing motion of carrying it around (like a self-winding watch). The first person to effectively market a working version of this could make a packet as well as harnessing a renewable green energy source. (Any engineers reading this, I am open to business venture partnerships.)
Economics is all about incentives. If the incentives are there for the corp’s, they’ll stick to it.