Turning the lens around: Using energy co-benefits as a prioritization tool

[Shuttertock/Kokulina]

No matter how important energy efficiency is to the green community, energy expenditures rarely make up much more than 1 percent of a company’s operating budget. The climate change conversation has raised awareness within the executive ranks, propelling some investments, but nowhere near enough. Given how tightly coupled energy and carbon issues are, it would seem that any carbon-conscious executive would invest heavily into avoiding carbon emissions by reducing demand as well as clean supply. 

Unfortunately, clean energy is rarely a company’s No. 1 concern — running a business is. Frequently, this gets simplified to "profit" motives — which is true in many cases. 

However, I have yet to run into someone whose life mission is to ruin the environment. Read on