• http://PowerQuotes.net/ In times of adversity, we often struggle to translate our feelings into words so that we may share and communicate with those around us. One way of assisting us to give voice to those feelings is through the use of quotes from people past and present. This site has a vast array of quotes that we may call upon.

• Environmental conscience.

You have most likely seen the posters, bumper stickers and ‘t’ shirts that read "we did not inherit the earth from our parents, we borrowed it from our children".

Most indigenous cultures around the world hold the view that the earth does not belong to us, but rather we belong to the earth.

Now, I was always taught to take extra special care of something that did not belong to me, so I can fully appreciate why the young in particular are extremely angry about the damage that is being done to planet earth.

Side three of the ‘triple bottom-line’ triangle is environmental responsibility. Therefore as business owners, I believe we have a moral and ethical responsibility to do all we can to return the earth to its paradisical glory. I’m not so unrealistic to think that it can occur in five to ten years, however with collective will and effort, it can be achieved, and the sooner the better. After all, it was business that got the world in this mess, so it is only right that business rectifies the situation we currently find ourselves in.

"For things to change, first I must change" – Robert Kiyosaki

When you point the finger at another, there are always three fingers pointing back at you. So the question is what are you and your organisation going to do, to help clean up the world?

Here are just a few examples of what you can do to create an environmentally friendly business;

• Adopt a recycling mindset throughout your company.
• Provide recycling bins everywhere
• Arrange to have all paper recycled
• Buy in bulk to reduce packaging
• Install long-life low energy light globes.
• Keep motor vehicles fully maintained at all times.
• Switch off lights when not required.
• Buy ‘green energy’ from your electrical utility.
• Ensure all stationery is printed on recycled unbleached paper using natural inks.
• Provide china crockery instead of disposable plastic or styrene cups.
• Provide metal cutlery, not plastic knives and forks
• Use the reverse of paper for draft computer printouts and faxes.
• Keep all packaging to a minimum and only use recyclable material
• Use biodegradable cleaning agents
• Use elbow grease instead of chemicals
• Organise car-pooling for staff.
• Reorganise rosters so as to avoid staff being caught in peak hour traffic.
• Keep the use of air-conditioners and heaters to a minimum.
• Turn lighting and heating off in unused offices and work areas.
• Apply tinting to all external glass windows and doors.
• Insulate ceilings where applicable.

On mornings when I go walking, I carry with me a plastic shopping carry bag and along the way pick up pieces of rubbish plus cans and bottles for recycling. Over the years of doing this, I must have filled several dumpsters.

It would be very easy to say, that’s not my rubbish, somebody else left it there. But it is my rubbish because it is littering my home, planet earth.

If we clean up our own back yard and take steps to develop an environmental business conscience, we will greatly increase our chances of returning the earth to our children in far better shape than it is at present.

Graham Harvey APS

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