We live in Denmark and quite rightly many Danes are proud of the wind energy sector and Denmark’s role in it. According to the Climate Consortium Denmark, Denmark is a specialist in producing offshore wind turbines. They claim that Denmark produces, “More than 90% of all offshore wind turbines worldwide” and “almost half the world’s wind turbines.” That’s a lot of turbines! And this is a growing market, growing at about 30% a year. This is an industry that in Denmark alone employs 25,000 people in about 350 companies.
But is it enough to simply produce things for the green economy?
Increasingly, there is a desire that companies in the green economy, including the wind energy sector, are green in product and behaviour. If companies want to say they are a green business, then it is important to “walk the talk” and look at themselves and their supply chain. Being green is more than just what you produce, it is also how you produce it.
Any sustainable or green audit of a company will want to calculate the business’ own carbon footprint. Although this varies depends on the consultant, carbon footprint calculations usually include an evaluation of employee practices such as commuting, business travel, recycling and other office practices and an evaluation of the building/office such as utilities, water usage and IT equipment. Businesses will increasingly be asked about their carbon footprint and what actions they are taking to reduce it. Active measures to make a building more energy efficient or building new premises as greenly as possible show a commitment to “walking the talk”, to be green in product and in production.
Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, a green business has to think about its supply chain. In the same way that safety campaigns and other certifications ask businesses to think about their supply chain, so too does green certification. It simply will not do to claim to be a green company producing, say, turbines for the alternative energy sector, if much of the parts of that turbine are produced by polluting suppliers and transported in a non-green manner. Being able to claim a environmentally friendly produced turbine for the wind sector would be a massive competitive edge.
At the moment, few of the companies involved in the wind sector in Denmark make these green claims. As part of the alternative energy sector, it would be nice to see the wind industry in Denmark practice green awareness in production as well as product.
If you’d like to have an independent review of how green your business is, please contact J2 Research. We help you get the information you need to make good business decisions.
Judith
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