Singapore business executives more aware of environmental threats?

Seeing green
Business Times 5 May 08;

Have business executives in Singapore and the region become more aware of the threat to our environment over the past one year? What can be done to raise the level of awareness and commitment further?

NINETY per cent of the world's goods are carried by sea. And as the demand for bigger, faster vessels grows, the shipping industry has also come under greater scrutiny. While we acknowledge that our energy consumption as a container shipping line is significant, we are committed to the continuous improvement of our environmental performance as well as increasing the transparency and understanding of CO2 emissions.

We are monitoring the public debate on CO2 emissions and related topics, such as food miles, with interest. The evaluation of the environmental impact associated with a product should take all stages in the product lifecycle into consideration, and not only the transport leg. Looking solely at the environmental impact of transportation from the producer to the end-consumer may easily lead to false conclusions as it does not take into account how the foodstuff has been produced, stored and used.

A full lifecycle assessment is far more complex than simply measuring the distance from field to table, but it is the only way to accurately judge the environmental impact and to determine the 'greenest' options. For example, transporting fruit uses energy and produces emissions. However, local production of, say, tomatoes close to the consumers would in many locations require substantial energy resources for heating greenhouses, transporting fertilisers and water, road transport, etc. In other words, 'local' production may in many cases be the less environmentally friendly solution compared with sourcing the fruits or tomatoes from further away.

Unless we as an industry are actively engaged in these discussions, we run the risk that decisions taken in the name of the environment will hurt our business while harming the environment.

Here are two specific examples illustrating the carbon foot print of shipping:

# Shipping tuna from Spain to Japan: Taking it by plane instead of ship increases carbon emission by a factor of 16.

# Shipping a pair of shoes from Indonesia to North Europe: The last 20km by car has a carbon footprint 10 times larger than the preceding ocean transport.

- Jesper Praestensgaard
CEO
Maersk Line Asia-Pacific

Not enough has been done

BUSINESS executives in Singapore and the region have certainly become more aware of the threat to our environment over the past one year. I attribute this to more media coverage on the matter and the climatic changes that have taken place. The current worldwide food crisis that is impacting everyone's daily lives is yet another symptom that our environment is under siege. It is a wake-up call that few can and must not ignore, especially governments.

In my opinion, the threat to our environment is a world problem requiring the fullest cooperation of all governments, especially those of the major economies, to address and tackle. Until there is consensus, and governments put this looming threat above their own national interests, it would be a slow and agonising process to contain the threat, if not to diminish it, before it is too late.

While all the meetings, such as the Kyoto rounds, that are organised to address the issue will undoubtedly raise the awareness, commitment to tackle this threat is harder to achieve, unless there is consensus, and governments, especially in developed countries, take affirmative steps by contributing resources and funding.

I worry that we are in a 'no action, talk only' situation. Without governments' commitment to tackle this threat, it is difficult to win the hearts and minds of businesses and the community to do likewise, even in small ways like helping to recycle rubbish on a daily basis. Singaporeans have as yet to respond to the latter in a big way, despite calls by our government and interest groups.

We are fortunate in Singapore that our government is taking the threat seriously and ahead of others in protecting our environment, for example, in the promotion of green buildings and clean energy programmes. Unfortunately, the threat to our environment knows no boundaries, so while we can take measures, the outcome is to a large extent dependent on steps taken by other governments in the region and the world at large. Many will remember the haze problem originating from fires in Indonesia that descended on Singapore in the last few years, and one that has yet to be eliminated.

When more businesses and our community walk the talk, Singapore can be a model for other countries, and in our small way, contribute to keeping the global environment green and containing, if not reducing, the threat.

- Lim Soon Hock
Managing Director
Plan-B Icag Pte Ltd

NOT long ago, the cry of the environmentalist was seen as alarmist and lost amid the public's ignorance and apathy. However, with increasing environmental anomalies like cold snaps, global warming, severe droughts, floods and hurricanes, the link between our actions and the environment has become harder to ignore. In fact, with the earth getting more vulnerable and fragile, some people may even make it out that our individual actions may now be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

I can say the actions of businesses are more attuned to environmental concerns now, if for a different reason than we would like to hear. Many businesses find that they need to cut cost in the face of inflation by reducing utility usage, car trips, photostating, etc. At the same time, many companies are increasingly getting on the bandwagon of social and environmental responsibility. While the reason may primarily be to build up their brand and image, the end-result is still one up for the environment.

To get down to a true altruistic and heroic feel for the cause, I guess one has to work at the individual level. Here we are not talking about the die-hard tree-hugging greenies, but everyone knowing the impact of his actions on the environment. Like understanding better the concept of embedded water or energy in a product, the carbon footprint of the things we use like cars or where our waste ends up. Without this, sheer capitalism and consumption will relentlessly drive all to use up more of the earth's resources.

Lastly, government and international efforts are important to lay the framework and priorities. Without this over-arching guidance, efforts will be sporadic and uncoordinated, with no critical mass. Things like carbon credits, getting tropical nations to keep their rainforests, etc, are still complicated but go towards laying an international framework for sustainable cooperation.

- Liu Chunlin
CEO
K&C Protective Technologies Pte Ltd

WITH the current onslaught of publicity focused on this issue through media, political and business channels, it would be hard to find an executive who's unaware of the growing importance of the environment in today's world.

While selected businesses in Singapore and the region have made advances in this area, I feel that it is still nowhere near enough. Singapore and regional corporates as a whole have yet to make the crucial link between environmental protection objectives and business strategy. Doing so will successfully entrench green initiatives into the corporate culture and help bring about concrete and meaningful change. Green initiatives and plans divorced from pragmatic business realities will inevitably find their sustainability threatened.

For example, from the Human Capital perspective, some international corporations take pains to burnish their green credentials to attract and keep talent, as an increasing number of studies have shown that to be a key factor for young professionals differentiating between prospective employers.

Tapping the energy and enthusiasm of the people within an organisation is an ideal way to ensure that awareness and commitment are increased. For example, Talent2 Singapore recently incentivised a 'Go Green' initiative whereby everyone was encouraged to think of ways to reduce waste and increase efficiency within the office. The response was overwhelming with excellent ideas being quickly implemented; but more importantly, it made environmental conservation and protection part of the daily language at Talent2.

- Matthew Beath
CEO
Talent2 Singapore Pte Ltd

I WOULD say that business executives in Singapore and the region have become more aware of environmental issues and the call to go green has been heard more often in the past 12 months. So, the poll right now is probably: awareness - high; commitment - low (unfortunately).

Business and government need to come together to do more for the environment. We need to go further than paying just lip service to this global cause. I feel there is still a need for a lot more education on the subject of going green in Singapore. A major push in this direction, undoubtedly, rests with the government and its effectiveness in working with the private sector to bring the key environmental message to the fore.

Greening education needs to first deepen in the schools. Often we find that adults and parents, who understand environmental issues but lack the discipline and commitment to respond, will be obliged to heed the call from our children to act responsibly in protecting our earth. Environmental education for this generation and the next has to progress concurrently.

As a furniture manufacturer, environmental issues are inextricably a part of the many business issues we have to deal with in our daily operations. I believe most businesses are still looking for a business case to justify their commitment to the environment. I guess we will continue to grapple with this for some time. However, as a nation, we are still a long way from making environmental concerns a top priority in our daily lives.

- Kenny Koh
Managing Director
Star Furniture Group

GLOBAL warming is perhaps the most important challenge facing the planet and it should be a priority to make people aware and start tackling the issue in the true sense. We need bold and tangible solutions to the inter-related problems of climate change, energy and food. We all have a role in saving the planet: using carbon trading, alternative energy and efficient usage to get the most out of the every kilowatt of energy being produced.

We need to implement simple, costless changes like turning off lights in the office at night, investing in green buildings and more efficient cars. Pump up research and development into renewable energy sources like solar and wind and support companies bringing new technologies to market. A greener planet will be more peaceful and prosperous too, and we can all contribute as individuals, as groups and as organisations.

- Pramod Ratwani
President & CEO
Consilium Software Inc

Business must be part of solution

THE green agenda has progressed beyond awareness to application especially in forward-looking enterprises. IBM Project Big Green is a US$1 billion investment to increase the efficiency of IBM products by doubling computing capacity without increasing energy consumption. The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), one of the largest natural gas and electric utilities providers in the US, recently leveraged on IBM technology to bring about an 80 per cent reduction in energy consumption and 70 per cent increase in systems capacity utilisation in their data centre facilities.

For a sustainable green movement, continued and closer collaboration between the public and private sectors and society is paramount. The recent hosting of a global United Nations event on Earth Day is testament of Singapore's commitment to integrate green efforts into businesses for society's benefit. At this event, F Michael Valocchi, global energy and utilities leader, IBM Global Business Services, elaborated on the importance of a corporation's commitment to energy conservation. He emphasised the improvement of manufacturing and business processes, encouragement of employee participation through clear communication, the practice of continuous review and enhancement, and the initiation of intensive workshops in an effort to inculcate an organisation-wide drive towards energy efficiency and environmental protection.

In summary, sustainable development is an important pillar of the modern corporation's strategy of socially responsible business growth and expansion.

- Teresa Lim
Managing Director
IBM Singapore

OVERALL, there is not only a growing awareness of the importance of sustainability of our earth and its resources but also action being taken by both individuals and corporations to advance the environmental cause. For example, green computing is one of the key areas that businesses are increasingly addressing. Technologies such as virtualisation, appliances that are low on power consumption and even wireless Internet, are seeing a greater rate of adoption in Singapore as well as Asia Pacific. Â

To help the corporate community further its commitment to protecting the environment, organisations can deploy a two-pronged approach. Internally, managers play an important role in cultivating a green workplace through energy-saving practices, as well as encouraging and rewarding employees who are environmentally conscious. Externally, companies should continue to implement initiatives that reduce their carbon footprint, support environmental events, and insist that vendors and business partners employ high standards of environmental responsibility.

- Charles Reed
CEO
DoCoMo interTouch

ENVIRONMENTAL awareness in Singapore and the region is growing as the steady rise in commodity and energy prices serves as a timely reminder that we all need to be more responsible in the way we use our planet's scarce natural resources.

Large organisations are often the biggest consumers of energy and can influence others in a positive or negative way. At Lenovo, we are committed to environmentally responsible practices in every market in which we do business. For example, this year we made a commitment to cut our energy consumption by 10 per cent by promoting activities such as encouraging our staff to turn off PCs at the power point.

On a bigger scale, Lenovo joined forces with other technology leaders and the World Wildlife Fund to form the Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI). Our goal is to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by setting aggressive targets for energy-efficient computers and components, and promoting the adoption of energy efficient computers and power management tools worldwide.

By 2010, the initiative aims to reduce global CO2 emissions by 54 million tons per year, equivalent to the annual output of 11 million cars or 10-20 coal-fired power plants. This effort will result in a 50 per cent reduction in energy consumption by computers by 2010.

Therefore, business leaders need to take responsibility as powerful global citizens to promote sustainable development by integrating environmental considerations into all decision making. The best way to do this is to continually strive to reduce the environmental impact of their operations and the products they create.

- David Miller
President of Asia Pacific & Senior Vice-President
Lenovo

WE OBSERVE among KPMG member firms worldwide that climate change is steadily moving onto the agendas of our client companies.

A recent KPMG report, 'Climate changes your business', highlights how climate change has strategic and financial implications across many industry sectors, presenting both risks and opportunities.

Business can, and should, be part of the solution. By improving their understanding of the effects of these risks and opportunities, they will be better placed to manage risks and take advantage of the opportunities.

This is why KPMG recently announced its own Global Green Initiative. By 2010, the combined carbon footprint of all KPMG member firms will be reduced 25 per cent from 2007 levels.

Locally, we have recently concluded a successful 'Make a Green Difference Week' campaign highlighting to staff the need to be energy-efficient. This campaign communicates to our staff that we take our commitment to reduce the carbon impact of individuals and of our firm as a whole seriously.

- Danny Teoh
Managing Partner
KPMG

THERE is a growing awareness of the threat to our environment but more needs to be done to increase commitment to adopt responsible energy practices and consumption. We have not reached a critical tipping point to curb the negative effect of growth on the environment.

While information is important in motivating change, we need to go further to find ways to change people's behaviour - not only through information, but also incentives that will make them want to act. Businesses have a part to play by increasing R&D in green technologies and ensuring their products are more energy efficient. The government can play a key role by increasing standards through legislation.

- Paul Peeters
CEO
Philips Asean

YES, absolutely. Growing public concern about environmental issues such as global warming is spilling over into the business world, where companies are increasingly looking to make their operations more 'green' by minimising their negative environmental impact. Benefits of 'going greener' include better leveraging scarce resources, boosting the corporate image and saving costs by using more environmentally sensitive solutions.

Easily achievable efforts for reducing carbon footprint could include promoting the use of telecommuting or telework (practice of working from home), enabled with secure remote access technology. And the benefits are multi-pronged: Not only does telecommuting help to reduce the number of cars on the road or the number of trips by air, it also provides a more flexible work schedule for employees, an important factor for companies to retain talent these days.

Besides telecommuting, companies can look also at:

# Redesigning products with more environmentally friendly materials and requiring less power to reduce their carbon footprint.

# Reducing consumption of electric power in company facilities, particularly for data centres and always-on desktop computers.

# Buying green or recyclable/reusable office supplies and recycling to divert waste from landfills.

# Encouraging car pools, public transit and bicycling for commuting workers or even subsidising employee purchases of hybrid vehicles.

At SonicWALL, we are active practitioners of the above practices. It is our corporate wish that through such small incremental steps we would be able to make the world a better place in which to live and work.

- Chee Heng Loon
Vice-President, Asia Pacific
SonicWALL

THERE is growing interest in going green among businesses due to the fact that energy costs are rising as energy supplies are depleting. For an organisation to successfully implement a green strategy, it has to build a business case to ensure buy-in from the management and the rest of the organisation. Otherwise, the drive to go green will be short-lived. Another way to increase awareness and support is to implement change management programmes as these will help the organisation better understand the rationale behind the company's green strategy.

Data storage is at the heart of every business, and how data is stored impacts the power consumption of companies. Storage hardware accounts for 25 per cent of all power consumed by any data centre. Luckily, the use of power is directly related to the number of drives used, rather than the amount of data stored. So the trick would be to increase storage utilisation, or the density of data being stored in each drive. Technologies like storage virtualisation can help companies improve storage utilisation.

Hitachi Data Systems helps organisations' commitment to the environment by helping them implement environmentally friendly and cost effective storage solutions. In addition, Hitachi Data Systems deploys environmentally friendly methods towards the design, manufacture and support of storage infrastructures.

- Ravi Rajendran
General Manager, Asean
Hitachi Data Systems

Playing their part

THERE is definitely broad awareness and growing concern among the government, businesses and the people in Singapore regarding environmental issues, particularly on climate change, carbon emission, and the impact on health and safety. The mass media provides extensive information and education on the topic and, likewise, the popular movie, 'An Inconvenient Truth'.

With stricter regulations, such as the European Union's Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (Reach), the chemicals industry could potentially set the pace for Singapore and the world in the green movement.

Companies, in collaboration with employees, suppliers and customers, can take many concrete steps. For example, Lanxess has initiated a project to achieve global certification of all its sites under one ISO9001 and ISO14001 certificate by 2009. Since 2006, we have also been rewarding employees' innovations in environmental protection through the Lanxess Global HSE (Health, Safety, Environmental Protection) Award, which carries prizes of 10,000 euros (S$21,000), 5,000 euros and 2,500 euros for the top three teams.

In addition, the group expects its suppliers to comply with all applicable national and other laws and regulations on safeguarding the environment and health of employees and the communities. This is an important criterion for our selection of suppliers.

As a global company, it is determined to consistently apply the same high standards in safety and environment across our 44 production sites worldwide. In Singapore, the group will spend up to US$70 million on environmental protection for our new butyl rubber plant to implement measures such as recovering energy through waste heat recovery, and reducing waste water by half, in comparison with our existing plants.

- Ian Wood
Managing Director
Lanxess Pte Ltd

ASIA'S travel sector is beginning to pick up on the issue of the environment, but is still playing catch-up with counterparts in Europe.

Regionally, we have seen a number of airlines and travel agencies launch carbon offset programmes for their passengers. And as recently as last week, Pacific Asia Travel Association hosted the Pata CEO Challenge where top decision-makers convened to debate the industry's response to climate change.

Our own company has taken steps to offset the carbon emissions at our employee conference held earlier this year. Along with other industry players, we are committed to learning more about this important issue and how the travel industry can contribute to the solution.

- Robert Bailey
President & CEO
Abacus International

THE level of awareness has certainly been raised in the past 12 months and more people are definitely conscious of the threats to our environment, thanks to all the activities and education that have been initiated by public and private organisations as well as individuals. However, there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of getting that awareness translated into action.

One way we could get that to happen is to make people more aware of the cost benefits of environmentally friendly activities. This is one way to get the attention of organisations. Cisco, for example, has made a commitment to reducing our carbon footprint through the use of collaborative technologies. By utilising our Cisco TelePresence systems, which we have set up in most of our major offices around the world, we were able to reduce our air travel significantly and save over US$150 million in the process. So we saved the money and made a positive contribution to the environment.

There are technologies available today that will enable us to work more productively with the same or fewer resources than we had in the past, and we should harness those technologies as much as possible.

- Tom Cheong
Managing Director, Singapore and Brunei
Cisco

AVIVA, as a member of the international business community, recognises its corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitments in our various roles, which include insurer, investor, employer, consumer and corporate citizen.

We are actively committed to managing and reducing our impact on the environment. At the group level, Aviva is the first insurer to carbon-neutralise its worldwide operations. In 2007, we increased use of zero emissions electricity as a group - approximately 55 per cent of our electricity globally now comes from such sources.

In the Asia Pacific, Aviva Hong Kong's CSR focuses on battling air pollution. Just over a week ago, we sponsored a tree-planting exercise organised by Friends of the Earth and staff were encouraged to participate in planting 250 seedlings. In Singapore, we signed the UN Charter together with our regional office on April 23, pledging to support the 10 principles of the Global Compact in respect to human rights, labour rights, anti-corruption and the protection of the environment.

We believe that companies need to make that first step of commitment to increase the level of awareness among their business executives and staff through various initiatives and programmes and follow through to their implementation. CSR only becomes truly embedded into the company culture when there is employee involvement - only when the employees are engaged to the cause, do they become advocates.

- Shaun Meadows
CEO
Aviva
Singapore, Hong Kong and Middle East

DURING the last year, there was a noticeable increase in the number of companies and organisations that started green initiatives. And with the increasing number of personal electronic devices distributed worldwide, the need for an organised effort to assess and manage their impact on the environment is obvious. As a global provider of communications devices and technology leader, Motorola is conscious of the role we need to play in helping to conserve the earth's resources. We are taking incremental steps in adopting a green approach in various aspects of our business.

We believe environmental awareness should start from within - through our employees. That is why we have organised awareness activities for employees around the region to support our product recycling efforts. A key initiative we have introduced is the 'Ecomoto Takeback' product recycling programme, aimed at involving the community to reuse and recycle as much of the electronic hardware products they own. That is done by facilitating the proper disposal of electronic products at the end of their lifecycle, and at the same time, building environmental awareness among users as well as the industry.

And where the opportunity exists, such as Earth Day, we also share the environmental message with our community partners. We celebrated the recent Earth Day with Minds (Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore) to create awareness for environmental protection through conservation themed telematches. In summary, it is critical that companies work to manage their impact on society, including improving the environmental aspects of products, recovering products for reuse and recycling, and minimising their operations' impact on the environment.

- EL Tay
President, Motorola Singapore
Corporate Vice-President, Asia Manufacturing Operations
Integrated Supply Chain
MotorolaInc

FREQUENTLY, business executives are accused of failing to consider the environmental ramifications of their plans and aiming for profit at the expense of all else. Increasingly though, making a difference through activism has moved from the public forums into the boardroom with green initiatives and considerations pushed to the fore in everything from CSR programmes to vendor selection criteria.

From the perspective of a leading global IT firm, adopting green practices would mean re-examining all aspects of operations, including facilities, people, and infrastructure. This ensures that at every level of the organisation, best practice strategies are proactively implemented and specific areas identified where greater efficiencies can be had - in terms of power utilisation or resource consumption/conservation/recycling. These best practices should ideally permeate through the corporate culture into the day-to-day work ethics of every employee.

By combining these efforts with global outreach programmes like the The Green Grid and the Storage Networking Industry Association Green Storage initiative, Brocade aims to influence its customers and partners as well as the storage networking industry as a whole, to discover additional ways to minimise the impact of IT storage network architectures on power consumption. In doing so, organisations are able to overcome the critical challenges of continued data growth, as well as limited data centre energy resources and increasing power costs.

- Deb Dutta
Brocade
Vice-President, Asia Pacific & Japan

IN SINGAPORE and across the region, we see awareness on the rise with green IT gaining acceptance - but much more can still be done. Nortel is one of the biggest users of unified communications, which ensures our employees can be connected from anywhere, significantly reducing the need for travel. We have also engaged in a company-wide IT transformation project aimed at reducing emissions, improving efficiency and saving cost.

We see more of our customers demanding first-class environmental credentials. Our corporate policy on 'designing for the environment' incorporates use of more recyclable (and substitution of hazardous) materials, disassembly concepts for end-of-life disposal, modular design and lower power usage strategies.

Simple actions such as wearing green outfits and switching off the office lights for two hours (which we did in Nortel Singapore during the last Earth Day) can already help to raise the awareness and commitment level of employees. We also provide an online resource centre, 'Green Scene', and an employee blog, 'Green Roots'. As a member of The Climate Group, which is focused on reducing the carbon impact of ICT, we provide opportunities for employees to work on projects to measure, benchmark and reduce carbon footprint.

- Michael Pangia
President
Nortel Asia Pacific

AS A company with a keen sense of corporate responsibility, CA encourages employees to consider the environment in everything they do every day, and to spread the word among customers by advising them on how to make their IT environments more environment friendly.

A great way of raising awareness is to come up with imaginative schemes to promote a green mindset. Only last week in India, CA went into 'partnership' with earthworms on Earth Day by launching a long-term vermin-composting project - a process by which earthworms turn organic waste into natural, nutrient-rich, high-quality compost. This kind of approach gets people talking about the environment in a more meaningful way and encourages them to be green at home, as well as at work, and to spread the message.

- Gavin Selkirk
Corporate Senior Vice-President & General Manager - Asia Pacific & Japan
CA

THE Brother Group's environmental policy has always been clear, working towards sustainable development by reducing waste through efficient use of resources, avoiding contamination when developing new technologies, and minimising environmental impact at every stage of a product's life cycle. This policy is based on the group's international 5R environmental concept which includes reducing waste material by recycling, reusing products and waste material, refusing to buy environmentally unfriendly products, reforming materials for reuse, and recycling rather than scrapping.

On a local level, we are stepping up our green efforts and have recently introduced a recycling initiative which will provide our customers with an easy and convenient way of disposing used Brother consumables in a socially and environmentally responsible way.

- Takeo Shimazu
Managing Director
Brother International Singapore Pte Ltd

BUSINESS executives have become more aware about the threat to our environment but still tend to see their individual involvement as insignificant, and hence remain passive. We need to convey the message that everyone has the responsibility to preserve the earth for future generations, and a little more effort from each of us can go a long way to protecting our environment.

Manulife recognises the need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions footprint and actively participated in Earth Hour 2008 at all our owned and managed buildings worldwide. Companies can put up posters to remind staff to switch off lights and computers when not in use, print only if necessary, use recycled materials. This should ultimately be the minimum we all do, habitually.

- Darren Thomson
President & CEO
Manulife (Singapore) Pte Ltd

Financial benefits to being green

THERE is probably a good basic level of awareness on environmental issues, but I don't think enough business executives realise the growing correlation between environmental practices and a company's economics. A greener way of doing business, which includes coming up with products that are environmentally friendly and energy-efficient, can lead to substantial financial benefits, and not just good publicity. Companies also need to recognise that sustainability is the key to securing a business's future.

At Siemens, we are committed to employing innovative technologies to mitigate environmental problems, such as climate change. We invest more than two billion euros (S$4.2 billion) a year of our R&D budget in environment technology and have 30,000 patents in this field. Specifically, for building technologies, Siemens offers an energy optimisation and conservation scheme in which we allow customers to use energy and operational cost savings to pay for their investment in intelligent building systems. Siemens ensures that facility improvements made today will decrease costs, increase comfort and productivity, and improve quality - all while minimising the impact to the environment.

- Hans-Dieter Bott
Managing Director
Siemens Pte Ltd

CLIMATE change and global warming are real, and organisations as well as individuals are becoming increasingly aware of the implications. However, everyone must realise that they can play an important role in mitigating this threat to mother earth, a belief that is still found wanting.

The Fujitsu group has been a strong advocate of green IT since the early 1970s. Through our green infrastructure solution, we have been consistently reducing power and carbon dioxide output while optimising power efficiencies in our data centres and products. Recently, Fujitsu became a contributor member of The Green Grid, the first Japanese company to take a leadership role in the global consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centres and business computing ecosystems. We aim to achieve a seven million ton reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010.

There are many potential benefits in investing in green IT and ultimately in adopting a triple bottom line approach. These include huge cost savings, positive impact on brand image, and most importantly, mitigating global warming which affects our daily lives. Therefore, there is a need for increased education to illustrate these benefits and inspire organisations to continually adopt best green practices.

- Noboru Oi
Group CEO
Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd

RECENT news reports of droughts, looming global food shortage and other environmental threats are increasing our awareness of the state of the environment today. Singapore is generally a green city - we take pride in our trees, parks and gardens. While we partake in the usual tree planting and promoting environmentally friendly products, there is much more that can be done to preserve the environment.

Paying more attention to the environment saves money for companies. High, and often preventable, energy usage and wastage spend contribute significantly to overhead costs. To reduce costs, organisations can do their part to save energy by investing in energy-conserving equipment like computers, printers and copiers. Switching to energy-saving lighting also goes a long way in cutting operating costs. And encouraging employees not to work late is not only a good work-life balance practice, it also saves energy! To promote this, companies can adopt a policy of automatically switching off lights and air-conditioning after a certain time and persuading staff to turn off their work stations every day, especially over the weekend.

For many companies, one of the most common practices in pitching-in to save the environment is reusing printed paper. While this reduces paper wastage considerably, companies can follow up by implementing monthly recycling drives to include other materials to be reused and recycled. In addition, car-pooling should be encouraged among colleagues who live nearby to reduce unhealthy and dangerous carbon emissions.

Firms can also support and invest in environmentally friendly causes which will boost consumer confidence, and ultimately the employer brand.

- Annie Yap
CEO
The GMP Group

I THINK business executives have definitely become more aware of the issues confronting the environment in the past year. Increasingly, we have seen more business initiatives geared towards the environment. It is no longer seen as a fad or hip to go green. I think businesses recognise that being environmentally responsible is one of the key principles of being a good corporate citizen.

Businesses have also recognised that being environmentally responsible can also help distinguish them from their competitors. All things being equal, a consumer will choose an environmentally responsible company over one which is seen as not. As such, it is encouraging to see supermarkets and stores doing away with plastic bags altogether. Once a movement like this gathers momentum, consumers will increasingly be aware of the part they can play to help the environment. And the best way to encourage businesses to go green is for consumers to vote with their dollars.

- Wee Piew
CEO
HG Metal Manufacturing Ltd

THE IT industry is increasingly finding itself under scrutiny to play its part in creating more sustainable business operating models - the need for the greening of IT.

The business community is already thinking green, even though they are not acting on it sufficiently. In a recent Citrix Systems survey with 96 of our customers in Singapore, 66 per cent viewed green IT as both a cost-saving measure and part of corporate social responsibility, while 36 per cent of them had taken steps towards green IT initiatives in the last 12 months.

With application delivery being a critical component of IT operations, Citrix's remote access and collaboration tools reduce carbon emissions by enabling telecommuting and remote collaboration. Further, its virtualisation technologies can help support government regulations that promote energy efficient data centres.

All these not only bring financial savings to businesses today, but also widen ecological sustainability to save our planet.

- Yaj Malik
Area Vice-President, Asean
Citrix Systems