Tech Tools: 'Green' Technology Has Arrived
Good for the Environment and Your Wallet
If you haven't been paying attention to energy efficiency as it relates to business or have been focused on the up-front costs of deploying the available solutions, you're missing an opportunity to save money.
"Green" is a term used to describe products and solutions designed to reduce energy use, minimize the use of, or impact on, natural resources, or both. Is going green good for your business? With energy prices soaring ever higher, more and more businesses are finding that the answer is undeniably yes.
Even though you may pay a small percentage more in the beginning to buy green products rather than standard products, the overall savings you realize usually justify the change.
For example, Energy Star, a joint project of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy, estimates that switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) saves about $30 over the life of each bulb compared with standard incandescent bulbs. Multiply those savings by the total number of bulbs you're using and it should become clear that there may just be something to this whole green thing. Because CFLs also last about 10 times longer than standard incandescent bulbs, large facilities may see noticeable savings on maintenance costs associated with changing light bulbs.
Beyond these types of direct benefits, green solutions are sometimes accompanied by indirect benefits. You may see lower cooling bills because green products such as computers and monitors generate substantially less heat than their standard counterparts, helping you keep your work space comfortable without lowering the thermostat.
Switching the vehicles that you drive, or at least the fuel that they use, is another way to go green. Across the country, transit systems are deploying more vehicles powered by hybrid or natural gas technology to lower their fuel costs-some by 20% to 30%. And you may be able to take advantage of various tax incentives by switching to alternative fuel vehicles.
And don't forget the power of the sun! Solar panels can be used in almost any climate to supplement or replace the power you get from electric and gas companies.
In the past, energy-efficient solutions were often extremely expensive, hard to find, and impractical to implement for regular business use. Today, that's changed as everything from computers and other office equipment to entire buildings adopt technologies that reduce energy consumption.
The cost savings available to your business as more of these options become available make it easy-and smart-being green. |
Reprint This Article
Share This Page