PRESENTER: (American): Good morning everyone. Thank you for coming to our talk today at the University of California’s tenth annual conference on sustainability. My name is Angelina Corral and I’m going to speak a little bit about sustainable business practices and how your company may be able to save money by adopting these practices.
First of all, I’d like to address the issue of air pollution prevention. Using energy-efficient technology is more important now than ever. Unique products like POWER SAVER significantly reduce harmful emissions from power plants. Why is this so important? Emissions from large power plants are a major source of the carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide that is found in our atmosphere. Carbon dioxide plays a large part in global warming, sulfur dioxide contributes to the presence of acid rain, and nitrogen oxide causes smog. However, if businesses begin using products that save energy, then the benefits to the environment will be enormous.
The second sustainable practice I’d like to discuss is reducing waste. Many businesses can save a significant sum of money by decreasing the amount of waste they create. How? Less waste means lower waste removal costs. Some methods for decreasing waste production include getting rid of unneeded goods, reducing the amount of materials used, redesigning packing to eliminate extra material, buying recycled goods, and reusing transport containers.
The next thing I’d like discuss is the benefits of water conservation. Now, cutting back on water usage doesn’t sound like a very efficient way to save money, but it can save you up to 10% on your annual costs. Heating water takes energy, and energy costs money. Pumping and purifying money also requires energy, which costs money. So, how do you cut back? Toilets account for about 40% of the average building’s water use. Older toilets use about 6 gallons of water per flush. However, new, water-efficient toilets decrease this to about 1.5 gallons per flush. It’s a huge saving. Replacing old faucets that use 2.5 gallons per minute with updated faucets that use 1.2 gallons per minute is another way of saving money. You can also install a solar water heater and cut your energy bill by as much as 30%.
Another frequently overlooked method for saving money is using less paper. That’s right, paper. In 2010, paper manufacturers made up 15 percent of US greenhouse emissions. This does not include the energy spent clearing forests, or shipping lumber to paper mills, or the energy used to transport paper to your business. The simple solution is to go “paper-less.” Now, not every business can realistically do this. However, all businesses can decide to use less paper. For example, try double-sided printing and copying. Send out electronic documents rather than hard copies. Buy recycled paper. If you recycle one ton of paper, it saves enough energy to power the average American home for six months. Furthermore, recycling a ton of paper can reduce greenhouse emissions by one metric ton. Using less paper also decreases the need for incineration of waste.