Greenwashing is Bad for Business

Whether you are a commercial business owner who cares deeply about the continued financial success of your small business or business empire, or a politician wishing to meet the expectations of their constituents, be they large business or disadvantaged communities, or an avid outdoors-person who wants to continue to enjoy the serenity of natural spaces, or you are a parent or grandparent who cares deeply about the wellbeing of future generations of their family, you have one thing in common, a common foe you need to vanquish.  You may know this enemy as one that destroys U.S. physical assets to the tune of $54 billion annually due to hurricane damage or $24 billion annually due to wildfire damage, neither of these figures include financial losses due to reduced business revenue, lost tax revenue, or a decline in property value.  Or you may know it by its deleterious impacts on health and mortality, due to extreme heat, air pollution, severe weather and floods, wildfire damage, environmental degradation that causes death, cardiovascular, pulmonary, cognitive, and neurological issues as well as cancer.

Climate change due to rising Green House Gas (GHG) levels and consequently rising temperature levels is here to stay and will continue to worsen the property damage caused to businesses and residences and the mortality and morbidity caused to humans and other living creatures, unless we humans as the earth’s intelligent life forms, take the necessary steps to protect our financial and human interests alike.

Concrete Environmental Social Governance (ESG) goals that create the structured framework for businesses to lower their GHG emissions and report their Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions until they achieve GHG Net Zero, are essential tools to minimize climate change before it destroys business properties and financial success in addition to causing untold human suffering and death.

Many forward-thinking businesses have heeded the call by their investors and customers to protect for their business’ long term financial success by commencing on their ESG journey.  Yet others have preferred to indulge in short-sighted greenwashing that gives the appearance of adopting disciplined ESG due diligence, while betraying their investors, insurers, customers, and their own best interests by being dishonest about their ESG intentions.  Greenwashing will in fact serve to hasten the demise of a business that chooses to indulge in it for two reasons:

1.       The business will be inadequately prepared for the worsening financial damage due to climate change.

2.       The unchecked damage to the environment caused by the business will further worsen the damage to its financial success due to localized climate change.

SELE Solutions, LLC will dedicate its 20+ years of engineering experience and 10+ years of academic research and teaching experience in physics to help your organization minimize the negative business impacts of climate change.  SELE will use a systematic approach rooted in science and objective assessments to conduct relevant data analytics, accurate energy consumption and GHG emissions calculations, then create a meaningful ESG and sustainability roadmap with goals that can improve your reputation and financial success as you track towards them.  SELE can also help you innovate and engineer the technology and business solutions necessary to meet your ESG and sustainability goals, manage their implementation, then monitor their success, hence that of your organization.

Sign up for an introductory workshop with SELE Solutions to start your journey.  Wherever you are on your sustainability journey, SELE can meet you there and take you to the next level to long term success.