[Part 4 of the Getting Green Done book review]
Unlike a lot of other books on the business of going green, Getting Green Done argues that government has to be a big part of the solution.
business is only one key to addressing climate change. Businesses are nimble, motivated (by profit), and powerful enough to drive large-scale change…. But even businesses are not going to drive enough change, at least not voluntarily. We can’t count on them to ride up on a white horse because, at best, most corporations will hit maybe the top 30 percentage points of efficiency, at a relatively good profit, declare success (and it will in fact have been significant success), and then get on with making money. And that’s assuming every corporation cares about climate change, which not all of them do…Relying solely on corporate, or individual, voluntary emission reduction measures to start this revolution is like asking everyone on a becalmed boat to blow toward the sail. (p.21)
Businesses still have a crucial role to play. For starters, we can’t wait for government to take action — global warming is too much of a threat to our survival.
And for government to do its job, it needs businesses and other organizations to play a vital role: figuring out what actually works.
Government needs examples of how to be environmentally progressive and case studies from which to build policy. Every individual and business matters because we need labs for determining what’s worth pursuing and how best to do it. Although this work is very difficult, the good news is that it only gets easier from here. It only resembles trench warfare now because we don’t yet have the policies in place to make it effortless. (p.21)
To put it another way, the only way to develop a Practitioners Perspective on the nitty-gritty of what it’ll take to go green is to get in there and start trying.
But even at this stage of the game — before we know enough to write smart regulations — government still has a role to play. Schendler’s first success at the Aspen Skiing Company finally happened because he was able to get a grant to fund his pilot project. Early on in the process, it’s hard for enviros inside organizations to get traction — there are too many unknowns. So government can “prime the pump” by funding these experiments.
For some regulations, there’s no reason to wait; Schendler’s a strong proponent of some kind of regulation of carbon emissions. But for others, where it’s a lot less clear what we need to do, from Schendler’s examples you can see a model emerging:
- A handful of organizations start to experiment with making changes
- Government “primes the pump” by funding more experiments
- Many more organizations do the difficult work of figuring out the best way to do it
- Advocates and organizations put pressure on other organizations to start making the change
- Now that there’s enough experience, we fight to pass regulations that level the playing field so organizations aren’t comparatively disadvantaged by making the change (e.g., green building codes)
Obviously the path to change is rarely this straightforward, and often several steps happen in parallel or happen a little at a time, taking several rounds before the job is done.
There are lots more interesting insights and great stories in Getting Green Done. I’d blog more of them, but then you wouldn’t have a good reason to buy the book. It’s a fun, smart read, and you should definitely check it out.
