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Date
Recently we've done a lot of thinking about how sustainbility is a driver of innovation. Inspired by the words of Marvin Odom, President of Shell Oil, who has just come right out and said that sustainability "may now be the number one driver of innovation projects at Shell", we've been seeing this sentiment shared by leaders of enterprises around the world, and echoed by PMO leaders as well.
This thinking was reinforced in an odd way via two stories - one of which crossed our desk just this morning.
In this Boston Globe story, and again in this story from Mass High Tech, we learn about the Endicott House, a 1934 mansion in suburban Boston which has been converted into a guest house and conference center.
At the Endicott House, MIT has started to use two forms of electrolyzed water (hypocholorous acid and sodium hydroxide) instead of Windex, Ajax, and Spic 'n Span. These cleaners are considered harmful in large doses and are obviously less sustainabile than what is basically ... water.
From a project standpoint, this means that the facility installs a system which is capable of separating salt water into the electrolyzed products and store it in two 55-gallan tanks, from which employees refil their spray bottles.
And they can do this withut fear of spills or burns.
A company based in Massachusetts calle Lynfield Green Technologies (LGT) has already sold 10 such systems, installing them in schools and companies that use these solutions to clean cafeterias and even semi-trailers.
So its about projects.
It's about economic sustainability.
It's about lowering toxicity and ecological sustainability.
It's about safer working conditions (social sustainability).
It's about cost of greenality.
Listen to Patrick Lucci, the co-founder of LGT: "The operating costs for using chemical cleaners or disinfectants is 20 to 25 cents per room per day, but you can virtually eliminate those costs by purchasing a $15,000 device and your carbon footprint gets smaller".
You can do the math, there is a finite payback period here. In the case of the Endicott Center, they belive it will be only a year or two. That's without taking into account the other "Cost of poor greenality" aspects which can be figured in as well in terms of health and well-being of employees, disposal costs for chemicals and packaging. You can also mix in the attributes of "good corporate citizen", "greening up your enterprise", and "higher employee morale".
Check out the stories - if you're into chemistry you may find the science interesting.
No matter what - we insist that sustainability is not only a source of innovation, it's a source of PROJECTS, and thus, worth learning about.
And - coming back around to our opening - it's more evidence that sustainability is more and more an "instigator" for innovation.
Posted
by
Richard Maltzman
on: November 14, 2011 10:24 PM |
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