Even a One-Person Business Can Make Big Green Changes

Software and Design, my software consulting business for the last 30 years, has shown me that even tiny businesses can change their green impact in so many important ways.

As with so many small businesses, economics has driven changes in mine that produced better environmental results. When I began my consulting work young, at 18, I modeled my business after the optical physicist to whom I was providing services. Prestige was an important part of his business, and his clients were glad to pay for his travel, volumes of reports, and other activities that symbolized work being done as well as producing direct benefits. It was the business model of the big-car era of the 60´s and 70´s.

My father, also a physicist, was busy cutting his carbon footprint even before the gas shortages of the 70´s. When he bought his first house around 1970, he began reducing its heating bill from well over $1000 a year to around $400, and he drove a Volkswagen Beetle. As my career evolved I tried to reconcile simplicity with effective business practices as a result.

My work began only a few years before the IBM PC arrived. I worked on huge computers, quickly moving to more efficient models. Much of my work has been introducing small computers to provide greater efficiencies. My current work in ´virtualization´ aims at eliminating even those IBM PCs that first provided great savings in energy and cost.

I have spent over $2000 a week just on travel expenses to visit clients, even greater amounts for short, ´quick fix´ trips. I have spent several hours a day driving to client sites in Boston traffic, and driven large cars and sports cars to client lunches.

I moved to Denver, Colorado a few years back, and that all changed. I resolved to use public transit and adjust my life accordingly. I use Skype, WebEx and other Internet services to connect with clients. Recently, I joined car-sharing service occasionalcar.com so I can use a hybrid for a few dollars an hour only when I need to.

The services I use haven´t added much cost to my work - in fact, they have added productive hours. Skype costs $10/month for unlimited worldwide calling and videoconferencing. WebEx for demonstrations is also inexpensive.

The results of my work rarely consume much in resources - reports and software arrive over the Internet, and services are provided by connecting to customers´ computers remotely. Only when I am dealing with prototype hardware and other hands-on situations do I need to travel to a client site, but local travel is now very cost-effective.

Denver´s transit system costs $70 a month for unlimited local use. My skills at using flight time productively come in handy on local transit as well. If I do need to travel to a client site, I have a major international airport and Amtrak service close at hand.

Though Boston is a hub of high-tech activity and has been since the 60´s, younger Denver has turned out to support my green small business in ways I never imagined. Both local commuting and other infrastructure tempts me to give up expensive habits and these days, the prestige is in being efficient and effective.