Imagine a neighbourhood where smart, solar-powered rubbish bins signal rubbish collectors only when they are full and ready to be emptied, thus reducing fuel costs. Imagine a mass transit system where buses run on recycled cooking oil, making them cheaper to operate with reduced emissions. Imagine a programme to create homes for the poor by converting and upgrading discarded shipping containers.
These environmentally-aware scenarios are already a reality, and are a few of the green projects highlighted in the recent publication: Greenovate, from the Hult International Business School and the Center for Innovation, Excellence and Growth. The study analyses fifty companies that have successfully ‘gone green’ while also turning a profit and examines their goals and obstacles that had to be overcome in order to achieve success. Covering a wide range of industries and products, from all-natural cosmetics, to energy sources derived from cow manure, to intelligent street lighting the study demonstrates that profitability and greenness can co-exist and, moreover, that the confluence of good business sense with environmentally-friendly strategies can result in even stronger products and services.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
