Hey! It’s the Maid’s Day Off

Earth Day Cleanup

About the same time his daughter, Emily, was born, manufacturer Paul Rak viewed Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. He was impacted by the film and sufficiently convinced that he should do his part to lessen the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions — or at least not be a contributor of them. Rak’s daughter’s birth tapped that primal parental instinct to make her life and her environment better, healthier, cleaner. Read his story, Manufacturer finds lighting energy efficiency convenient, truthfully.

As a result, Rak scrutinized his plant and operations and made 45 changes that he estimates reduced his company’s CO2 emissions by 233 tonnes annually. By the by, he also reduced its electricity usage by 58 percent and reduced natural gas consumption by 90 percent — pocketing $89,152 in annual savings as well.

Dismiss at Your Own Risk

Others have taken a different view of the climate change issue and emissions and wholly dismiss everything related to sustainability as a hoax. Maybe I’m missing something, but what’s so objectionable about a clean planet, drinkable water, and breathable air?

Successful companies such as Owens Corning, GE, Johnson & Johnson, Grainger, Apple, Microsoft, Siemens, Caterpillar, Deere, Kimberly-Clark, Nucor, McGraw-Hill, Herman-Miller, Schneider Electric, and Steelcase have declared a commitment to being environmentally responsible, reducing emissions, and are requiring the same of their suppliers.

Wal-Mart is in the process of developing a “sustainability index” in which suppliers will be required to provide a breakdown of their products into the materials’ makeup, the energy consumed in making them, emissions, their waste management, biodegradability, recyclability, and life cycles. Wal-Mart said it is doing so because it believes that its customers want information about the environmental friendliness of the products they buy and will factor sustainability into their purchase decisions.

No doubt other retailers will follow suit. Manufacturers hoping to supply retailers would be wise to take heed.

It’s About Being Responsible

You do not have to believe that humans are causing climate change to know that toxic waste should be prevented from seeping into the water table we drink from; that the emissions from coal-fired power plants released into the air we breathe contain noxious pollutants; or that humans are accumulating mountains of trash and running out of places to put it.

Nor do you need to be a climate change believer to know that the growing global demand on energy will continue to apply cost pressures and constrict its availability, or that being energy-independent is a good thing.

Intuitive reasoning and common sense are all that is needed to realize that we should be responsible about how we work and live, in a way that does not contaminate our earthly home, for ourselves and our families.

Sustainability really is about practicing the fundamental lessons of responsibility that most of us learned growing up: Don’t let your careless actions become somebody else’s problems; pass the salt; and Hey! Clean up after yourself. It’s the maid’s day off.