Thursday, July 17, 2008

Two Companies, Two Different Blueprints for Reducing Global Warming

From Knowledge@Wharton:

Businesspeople spend too much time worrying about the burdens brought by global warming -- the possibility of carbon taxes and greater regulation of emissions -- and ignoring the potential commercial upside, according to participants in a recent Wharton conference titled, "Winners and Losers in Green Technologies," sponsored by the William and Phyllis Mack Center for Technological Innovation. Indeed, the participants added, the so-called "green economy" presents lucrative opportunities for companies willing to invest the effort in seizing them.

These opportunities aren't just the obvious ones like solar and wind power or electric cars, but rather touch nearly every industry and every type of firm, from startups to established giants. Even organizations whose goods and services aren't easily modified can remake their images in ways that attract environmentally conscious customers or stave off competition from greener upstarts. Executives from DuPont, the Wilmington, Del., chemical maker, and NetJets, a Woodbridge, N.J.-based seller of ownership shares in private jets, talked about "going green" during a conference presentation....MUCH MORE