Re: Era of Sustainability by Vivian Lin

https://blogs.ubc.ca/comm101sec105/

There are hundreds of blogs that discuss the practicality of sustainability in a business sense, but Vivian Lin’s blog asking if a company is “doing it for the right reason” sparked my interest. I respond to her question with one of my own: does it matter?

Having recently attended the CUS Chasing Sustainability conference, I found my question answered by Janice Cheam, founder of Energy Aware. In explaining how her company received funding, she touched on the idea that simply “putting up photos of melting ice caps” does not work when trying to attract large electric company buyers. These companies are interested in making money – there does not seem to be logic in an electric company giving people a product that will reduce their electricity bill. Thus, Janice suggested a new strategy: showing the company how using Energy Aware could positively impact their business by ensuring that the demand did not start outstripping the ability of the company to supply energy.

This relates directly to the question above – does it matter if a company is “doing it for the right reason”, as long as they are doing it? Whether a company decides to only use sustainable inputs for moral reasons or because it would be a strong marketing strategy, the bottom line is that the company will start using more sustainable inputs. The overall goal is to reduce the impact that we are having on our earth, not to force every person to become an eco-friendly tree hugger.