No left turns please...
von Frank A. Gupta
Turning green to gold or red to black is similar to not turning left. This is one thing that you could have learned from this year‘s CPI Technical Conference.
The development of polyols, additives and intermediates from renewable resources and their impact on sustainability continues to occupy much research effort of companies involved in the North American PU industry. As yet, not all have been successful in turning their “green” products into gold and still some balance sheets remain red due to product development and capital investment costs.
Delegates at the recent CPI conference in Houston were lectured on the benefits of “going green” as a way to increase profits. This is no longer optional but a “must” according to Andrew Winston author of two best sellers on sustainability who was the keynote speaker at the opening session in Houston.
China and Europe are already committed to implementing greater energy efficiency measures at a rate that surpasses the efforts made in the US. China intends to spend vast sums in green technology and the US needs to play catch up.
Finally some major US corporations are seeing positive gains from efficiency savings, spurred on by the effects of a weak economy and falling profits, implementing some simple changes have returned balances sheets into the black. Changing light bulbs to energy efficient types or rationalising the number of printers in an office to reduce the usage of paper. Or as for example in the case of UPS not turning left at traffic lights, thereby eliminating the need to stop and idle the engine and thereby saving millions of gallons of gasoline every year.
For the more informed this simply means just using less resources and avoid wastage!
Apropos avoidance...
Some delegates seem to have avoided the long walks between conference and the exhibition and thereby saved some of their personal energy. Perhaps they understood the energy saving bit the wrong way...
Of course changes in behaviour can be difficult to make...
...the maids in the hotel insisted on leaving all six energy saving lights on in my room...
...the aircon in the conference centre seemed only to have an on/off switch without regulation and was cooling down the halls to freezing temperatures...
...and right outside the convention centre I was nearly run over by a UPS truck that did turn left!
With best regards
Frank A. Gupta