Business and Sustainability - Essay Example

?Within the past 15 to 20 years, industry has seen an increase, and subsequent decline, in the use of terms such as “greentech” and/or “envirotech”. These specific representations deal specifically with the means by which an industry or firm exhibits the final product to the consumer or the environment. In such a way, a company that practices greentech or envirotech would necessarily have affected some type of benefit to the environment or the society within the process of production. However, neither of these terms necessarily represents a net benefit to the end consumer; outside of the necessary understanding that their exhibition means a cleaner environment for all. However, the introduction of the approach that “cleantech” offers is something of a different entity entirely. As such, cleantech necessarily refers to the way in which technology can be utilized both as a means of providing a diminished negative impact upon the environment as well as providing a superior level of performance at lower cost. In such a way, cleantech is able to not only benefit the interests of the natural environment but also benefit the interests of stakeholders within the firm that seek to maximize revenue by increasing efficiency and productivity. In such a way, the utilization of cleantech comes to be something of a win – win situation. Whereas it is oftentimes seen that businesses and industry can only maximize profits through increasing production, cleantech necessarily promotes the understanding that changes in technology necessarily promote increase in efficiency that has a positive impact upon overall profits as well as a diminished negative impact that the process of production might necessarily engaged the environment. As a function of understanding and describing cleantech to a more full and complete degree, the following analysis will be concentric upon the means by which cleantech is ultimately the definition of a sustainable business. Before delving directly and answering whether cleantech is or is not the hallmark of sustainability, it must be necessary to understand the cleantech, and the application thereof, necessitates that the industry/firm in question be perennially aware and cognizant of whatever changes might be taking place within the technological environment. The reason that this awareness is so necessary is due to the fact that the firm will not be able to integrate with these technological changes and thereby enhance their overall efficiency unless they are continually seeking means by which the process in which they engage can be streamlined. Although cleantech represents an important progression with regards to the way in which business/industry seeks to integrate both with the needs to generate income and the needs to preserve the environment, it would not be fair to say that sustainable business is all about cleantech. The reason for this is due to the fact that sustainability and business cannot and should not be defined based upon cleantech alone. In such a way, cleantech should be viewed as a process and means whereby a firm/industry can seek to benefit itself with the tangential benefit of benefitting the environment. Although this is a net positive for all players involved, it nonetheless does not have sustainability as its primary mission or goal. Instead, it merely allows for the ancillary benefit of environmental consciousness. An obvious example of the way in which cleantech works in order to benefit both the company and the environment would necessarily be the utilization of a better and more efficient process of production than had previously been employed. Moreover, the process itself is not the sole contingent category; instead, the actual inputs to the process or the building or facility within which the product is created can also include components of cleantech. In short, cleanteach is not restricted to a simplistic understanding of the components of any particular project. As such, the range and scope of materials and processes which it includes is so broad as to be exhibited at each and every level that the project is likely to entail. For instance, the very basic definition of sustainability not only has to do with the way in which the firm is exhibited in the future but also the way in which the firm can hope to integrate with the environment and produce as little impact as imaginable with regards to this environment (Walsh 7). However, cleantech, although prizing the way in which the environment exists, does not seem to place as fundamental a focus upon the environment as might necessarily be needed in all forms a sustainable business. In such a way, it is not necessarily correct to denote that sustainability in business is all about cleantech. Rather, perhaps the better it indication would be to say that cleantech is one means by which sustainability can be integrated within the industrial/business world (What Is Clean Tech 2). However, to cleantech’s credit, it must be understood that this particular approach is novel due to the fact that it requires the firm/industry it integrates with the to utilize technology as a means of both furthering profitability and protecting the environment. Although there are many changes that can be made with regards to the industrial process bedroom and other processes of production that seek to benefit and protect the environment, the level and extent to which technology can play cannot and should not be minimized (What Is Cleantech 1). Looking back over many of the projects that it been analyzed the semester, as well as many of the relevant structures in means by which production takes place, the reader can come to an understanding that cleantech is played a vital role in the way that each of these is exhibited (Lynch 4). Whether clean technology has been utilized as a means of providing superior insulation in the walls, a reduced environmental impacts of building materials, and improve the level of efficiency in production, or the exhibition of wind turbines as a means of generating clean renewable and sustainable energy, cleantech is played a vital role in nearly each and every sustainable aspects that is been analyzed during the course of the semester. Ultimately, although cleantech is vitally important with regards to minimizing the environmental impact in maximizing overall utility that an entity/firm might experience, it can still only be seen as part of the solution. Although cleantech may very well represent 80 to 90% of the solutions that industry and business might integrate with, it nonetheless is not the solution to each and every sustainability issues (Jenkins & Muro 1). In this way, although cleantech is well represented and has a powerful impact upon the overall sustainability that many firms within the system can exhibit, it should not be looks to as a panacea of all sustainability needs. In short, the reason for this can be understood due to the fact that cleantech by its very definition seeks to both maximize profits and maximize environmental utility. All too often, these two cannot be realized dependently and one necessarily reduces the level and extent to which the other can exist. This opposite relationship is the main rational behind the understanding of this student for why cleantech should not be measured as the sole determinant of sustainability for the future of business and industry. For the time being, it is a successful tool towards the right path for many entities/businesses; however, it should not come to be seen as the only means or the true definition of sustainability in and of itself. Works Cited Jenkins, Jessie, and Mark Muro. "Beyond Boom and Bust: Putting Clean Tech On a Path To Subsidy Independence | Brookings Institution." The Brookings Institution. N.p., 18 Apr. 2012. Web. 13 May 2013. Lynch, Shana. "Cleantech investment down in Q3; Kleiner Perkins tops list of funders - Silicon Valley Business Journal." Business News - The Business Journals. N.p., 9 Oct. 2012. Web. 13 May 2013. Walsh, Brian. "A New Report Explores the Boom and Bust of Clean Tech Funding." TIME.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2013. "What is Cleantech? |." Cleantech Group | Insight into Innovation. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2013. "What is "Cleantech"?" Mirador Consulting Ltd - Clean Technologies & Sustainable Development. Mirador Consulting, 7 Jan. 2012. Web. 13 May 2013. Read More