Making Sustainability Stick: The Blueprint for Successful Implementation, Premium Edition

Chapter 7. Energy

Our country’s era of abundant, cheap fossil fuel energy is coming to an end. For more than a century—with the exception of the energy crisis of the 1970s—our economy has been able to thrive off this low-cost energy. This is all rapidly changing, and companies are now in a position where they must adapt to new realities:

• Increasing energy prices

• Business risk due to energy uncertainty and volatility

• Potential regulation of GHGs as they pertain to energy use

• Cost-competitive renewable energy opportunities

How can businesses prepare for both a new energy paradigm and the uncertain impacts of climate change? In this chapter, I explain what this new energy reality is, what it means for business, and what companies are already ...