Green initiatives

I’ll come right out and say it: green initiatives are a stupid idea. The topic came up recently and it was pleasantly noted that the green trend had died off as a technology topic. That’s good news. Companies care about making money, and your average CFO will gladly pollute the groundwater or dine on the last remaining humpback whale if it will generate profits (net of any government fines) and increase stock price. That’s perfectly fine. Well, it’s not really fine but it is consistent and rational behavior and you can work with that. All you need to do is show value first, and green second. We wrote a great research report looking at energy savings of moving to Salesforce, and it turns out you can reduce overall energy draw by 98%. That’s a great data point for anyone considering Salesforce, but it’s secondary to the ROI calculation. Projects that deliver value continue over the long term while marketing-driven initiatives (like green) tend to be short term. For some, green is critical and manufacturing firms and airlines consider saving energy a bottom line problem. For everyone else, building a bottom line business case first, then adding the green value, is the right long term approach.