> -----Original Message----- > From: G [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, March 04, 2005 2:23 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: How to destroy the Earth > > > When is the ROI that you speak of realized? Businesses are run by people, > people out to make money. These people have an average life span of about > 77 > years, if they are Americans. Why would a businessman care about affects > his > business has on the environment 300 years from now?
There both long term effects and short term effects. And, again, it's not his businesses effect on the "environment" - it's the businesses effect on the people. Short term ROI: +) There are many tax breaks and other government programs (both in the US and abroad) for making such changes. +) There are cost savings in litigation and the legal fees needed to defend the company practices. Nuisance lawsuits for pollution could also be eliminated. +) In many industries significant dollars are spent in simple cleaning and maintenance. Printing plants, for instance, have dedicated teams to clean the walls and surfaces of the plant of ink and paper dust (I used to do that for a living... awful job). Fairly simple cowling on the stacks could eliminate or greatly reduce that. +) There are immediate or near term gains possible if they are taken advantage of. Many companies, for example, could easily sell waste heat from purification processes or lease rood space for solar or wind farms. Some have thought that even just planting grass on the roofs of large facilities might positively affect CO2 emissions. +) New equipment could be purchased with these ideas in mind from the get go. The cost would be marginally higher, but much less than retrofitting. +) Certain business practices threaten the existence of the business. Strip mining, over-fishing, etc have the potential to eliminate those industries (or at least that business). > Seems to me "business > against nature" is a pretty decent description of this dynamic. Not really - the affect on nature of this kind of thing is, in the big picture, pretty minimal. The effect on (and costs for) humans however is amazing. There are, of course, specific species that suffer. Humans have caused the extinction of an amazing number of species - but nature has caused the extinction of vastly more. At this point (and for the foreseeable future) nature is much more dangerous to us than we are to it. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:149283 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
