Blog Action Day

Over 15,000 blogs, with twelve million readers are participating in blog action day on the environment. So am I, with this post.
The majority of scientists are now in agreement that human action is the cause of increasing global temperatures with its consequent impacts on our environment and economy.

I often get cheesed off, with the Irish approach to the environment. Being lectured to leave the cars at home and take public transport is fine- if there’s good public transport. However our approach to this area and overall environment design reflects a lack of “joined up” thinking. For example, recently our 15b bus terminus was moved three miles up the road, but the newspaper adverts stated bus departures would be doubled. Sounds good. However the reality is that instead of buses leaving every 10 minutes as before during peak hours, the buses now leave every 15 minutes with the result that buses are often full by the time they reach here. So now people around here are more likely to take the car!

But as the Dalai Lama says

“if you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito”

Both as individuals and as employees/entrepreneurs we can make a difference to the environment, save money and be happier in our working lives. A win win proposition despite lack of public sector joined up thinking!
I’ve blogged before how our obsession with possessions, restricts our choices and can mean we stay in jobs we don’t enjoy or commute long distances to earn extra money than can be earned locally. So reducing the number of possessions we need can have a positive impact on the environment.

But every single day, we can decide to make a difference without making life changing decisions. Working in big organisations means many people don’t care about costs. So lights are left on in unused offices, waste paper is not put into the recycling bin, but into the ordinary bin for land fill.

Recently, I attended a meeting where three managers travelled out of town in their separate cars to Tallaght for a meeting that could have been easily conducted over the phone using teleconferencing. (Teleconferencing suppliers now provide facilities with no set up charge and you only pay for what you use) This would have reduced carbon emissions, travel costs and freed up valuable manager time.

When we used teleconferencing in a small nationwide charity, it made such a positive difference to people’s working lives as it meant less travel and improved communications. Sure we still had the face to face team meetings, but teleconferencing meant we could tackle urgent issues quickly and effectively and meant staff felt more connected to their work which in turn benefited clients.

Self employed people can also make their businesses more profitable by being environmentally friendly. For example Fujitsu Siemens will perform a free study to demonstrate how companies can make 40 per cent savings in their data centre costs. They are so confident they can do this they will donate €10,000 to an environmental charity if they don’t succeed.

So why not examine your working life and see what simple changes you can make that can benefit you and the environment?
Click here for some suggestions on the Power of one web site.

Other posts which may be relevant
Seven day weekend
Accountants take pay cuts


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