From Nathan Dombeck

Janesville

To the Editor:

‘Sustainability’ almost seems to be a swear word these days. Whether it’s the Trump administration cancelling wind farms, large corporations like GM backing away from their EV plans, or local opposition to solar farms, being green ain’t easy.

The framing of the issue seems to suggest that if you try to protect the environment, you’ll incur some sort of extra financial penalty; however, new reporting from Semafor News flips that paradigm on its head. Semafor reports that a recently released Boston Consulting Group study indicates that “Businesses aimed at reducing emissions and adapting to climate change impacts are the second-fastest growing sector of the global economy after tech, and are on track to be valued at more than $7 trillion by 2030...” Technology to reduce emissions at the source are getting cheaper; same goes for batteries, solar panels, EVs, and the like.

There is a very real business incentive to pursuing these types of technologies. Corporations are also starting to pay attention to climate risks like never before, as extreme weather upends supply chains, factories, and the lives of their workers and customers — all of which costs their operation money.

So go ahead and bring ‘sustainability’ back into your lexicon — you’ll be in good company.