that target at the end of 2001, nine years ahead of schedule, and gained around $750
million in net present value through increased operational efficiency, the application of
technological innovation and improved energy management. While returns on
traditional investments average 40-50 percent, investments in increasing energy
efficiency often return 70 percent or more.67
BP is now one of the world’s largest solar
companies and sees its 50-year future as one of transition away from fossil fuels to
becoming an energy company.
Financial savings are not the only reason that companies engage in such behavior.
Rodney Chase, a senior executive at BP, subsequently reflected that even if the
program had cost BP money, it would have been worth doing because it made them the
kind of company that the best talent wants to work for.68
It is reducing costs, gaining
market share and attracting and retaining the best talent.69
DuPont, an even earlier entrant into the field, committed itself to reducing its GHGs by
65 percent from 1990 to 2010. The company also set plans to raise revenues 6 percent
per year from 2000-2010 with no increase in energy use, and by 2010 source 10
percent of its energy and 25 percent of its feed-stocks from renewable sources. The
company announced these goals in the name of increasing “shareholder and societal
value.