Required Reading Material

To best understand the Carbon constrained economy, there is some required reading for anyone interested in the impacts on all us.

The first is a fantastic McKinsey study that really details the largest opportunities to reduce emissions in the United States. It might surprise you as it has many others. The largest opportunities are also negative-cost impact opportunities!

What does that mean? It means at $50/MT CO2e, the cost to reduce emissions in many areas is far less than $50/MT thus a savings! Energy efficiency can be lumped and categorized as one main body that has a negative cost impact.

And why not? It's not only green but common sense and great business sense to reduce the cost of your operations by minimizing the raw material costs. One of the main raw material costs in any business is Energy. So, be smart, reduce your use, and by maintaining good business sense, you reduce your emissions. It's a win on all fronts. It's too bad many companies don't see the "sexiness" of an energy reduction project when it typically has high ROI, low impact on operations(in fact it's an improvement many times), and meets sustainability goals.

So, read this paper with it's wonderful Vattenfall curves at:

http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/ccsi/pdf/US_ghg_final_report.pdf