Sempre Avanti Consulting is a Wellington business benefiting from taking a green approach to recession. They were recently awarded a trophy for their involvement in the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Climate Neutral Network (CNN) as one of the first 100 participants.

“We’re told when you’re in a recession and in cost-cutting mode, the first thing you cut is costs not attributing to the bottom line. – Some say that green issues and initiatives are the first to go as discretionary spending and are difficult to attribute to bottom line savings,” says Gordon Shaw, Manager of Sempre Avanti Consulting.

“But by taking a systems thinking approach to being green and look at sustainability initiatives with a process improvement angle, you’re likely to get a different result. In a recession it makes good sense to take a systems approach to the review of your processes. You can review with an aim of reducing cost, resource intensity and improving efficiency – which all end up being sustainability initiatives by default.

Look at your energy bill and set a goal to cut your energy consumption by 15 percent, you will save on your energy expenditure and be green at the same time, through undertaking a lighting audit, changing to CFL’s and installing motion sensors,” he said.

At the UNEP meeting in March, Executive Director Achim Steiner said, “The CNN was born in response to the growing need to federate the many bold and inspiring initiatives being taken the world over to address the global climate change challenge and embrace the opportunity to de-carbonise our economies and societies.”

www.sempreavanti.co.nz