Perspective: Do we need a red light before going green?

It seems of late as if every company in America has introduced a new environmental initiative.

Dell is planting a tree for every PC it sells, Staples is embracing solar power, and Wal-Mart is rolling out energy-efficient stores. My company, Salesforce.com, also launched a program designed to move us towards being a "carbon neutral" company in 2007.

Still, critics remain unimpressed, dismissing the efforts of many companies, including my own, for charging ahead on a "green crusade."

A scientist lambasted Dell's effort in The New York Times, saying that its tree planting initiative will do "little or nothing to help slow climate change." In an article published by The Register, environmentalist lobby group Friends of the Earth criticized carbon offsetting--one of the tenets of our environmental initiative--as "a dangerously misleading activity" because it could "fail to change the behavior producing CO2 in the first place." And, Tom Borelli, partner in an investment company, the Free Enterprise Action Fund, is all over the news suggesting that companies (like Citigroup) have no business embracing green policies and that such commitments to these programs are irresponsible to shareholders.

Overall, these skeptics imply that political leaders, not corporations, are the only ones who can take the lead to help preserve our planet. I couldn't disagree more.

Anyone who says that investing in planting trees or carbon offsets is not doing enough or investing too much in the wrong initiative is missing the point.

The people who work at corporations have the desire to make positive changes, and with the right partners, companies have the power to make a difference. We give our employees four hours a month, or six days a year, in paid leave to go out and do work in the community. By expanding the program to include our partners and vendors we have seen even greater impact. Real change can happen when broad groups of people band together for a common goal.

Anyone who says that investing in planting trees or carbon offsets is not doing enough or investing too much in the wrong initiative is missing the point. We all have a choice: we can do nothing while we wait for everyone to agree on a position and wait for policy makers to introduce environmental stewardship--or we can get started now.

With the earth heating up, ice caps melting and oceans rising, we can't wait. We've tapped experts including Clean Air-Cool Planet, NativeEnergy, and Conservation International for guidance and research. We've begun to neutralize the effect of greenhouse gas emissions from our offices, data centers and travel activity by investing in renewable energy projects. These investments will help finance the construction of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe St. Francis Wind Farm in South Dakota, the Kasigluk Alaska wind project, a family farm wind project, a family dairy farm methane energy project, and an international carbon sequestration project in the Makira forest of Madagascar.

We will continue with activities such as instituting recycling, subsidizing commuter travel and assessing office equipment. Employees understand that more sweeping changes can be made by a group of 2,000 people working in unison. To that end, will be setting up a Sustainability Council in 2007 that will examine current activities and investigate other things we can do to help thwart the current climate crisis.

We have been inspired by the way the technology industry has in many ways led this green charge. I salute NEC for its innovative recycling and tree planting program. I also commend Sun Microsystems for serving as an early role model and providing servers running lower-power chips and committing to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. And I laud Intel for its use of renewable resources and reduction in waste. I'm proud to be part of an industry that has placed such a strong commitment to being environmentally responsible.

How can anyone say corporations don't have a role here? We are all stakeholders in this planet. We all care about its future. Let's stop arguing about whose role it is to initiate and work together to become a force for change.

Biography
Marc Benioff is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Salesforce.com.

More Perspectives

[rslc]

Dell

IMO, if Dell is really keen in leading green movements, they should promote power-efficient PCs and push for high-efficiency power supplies, instead of still selling power-hungry PCs based on pentium-D.

[RBinny]

Dell Energy Efficient PC

Hi rslc<br /><br />Saw your comment about power efficient PCs and wondered if you had checked out this part of our web site specifically addressing where we are at on energy efficiency:<br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/environment/en/energy?c=us&#38;l=en&#38;s=corp" target="_newWindow">http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/environment/en/energy?c=us&#38;l=en&#38;s=corp</a><br /><br />And we have more to come

[ddesy]

Shareholders

The article mentions that Tom Borelli says implementing green policies is irresponsible to shareholders. This is really, really sad. I guess to some everything is still about nothing but almighty dollar, and this needs to change!

[qwiji]

Even the dollar should agree...

Most every company who makes these efforts gets some nice positive press out of the deal. Positive exposure and public oppinion can go along way.<br /><br />Let's face it, green is popular these days. And most people are more influenced by news than some silly TV commercial. (Even though it may not quite seem like it.)

[yedeus]

Well done!

for your wonderful initiatives! It's fantastic to see Corporations in the USA &#38; other countries starting to stand up and be counted on these issues. It's been horrifying to watch the US (government) wallow in a state of denial, and unbelievable to see how many people are still naysayers with regards anything "green". It is up to every single individual &#38; hopefully all corporations large &#38; small throughout the world to make an effort. Only then can we hope to still have a livable planet for our children/grandchildren. Everybody should be forced to watch Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth".

[Reddog2]

Active Stewardship

Leadership with vision...how refreshing!

[pdxtech]

Let Greenland Melt

It's a noble cause for corporations to reduce CO2 emissions, but it's not enough to stop nature from doing what it's going to do naturally.<br /><br />Get the facts...<br /><a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.ncpa.org/ba/ba230.html" target="_newWindow">http://www.ncpa.org/ba/ba230.html</a>