Steve Melink

& LIGHT

CEO

transcendent leadershipfor a sustainable world

‘CEO Power & Light’ is a provoking read onexecutive leadership. Other such books may intrigue

the mind, but this stirs the heart and soul.

CEO Power & Light is destined to become a business classic on

transcendent leadership—doing the right thing and making the world a

better place. The strategic advantages that flow from this emerging,

higher form of leadership are indispensable to building great brands and

companies in the 21st century.

Author Steve Melink makes a compelling case that sustainability and

clean energy are natural extensions of being respectful and honest

toward others. Long-term investments in these areas will excite our top

and bottom lines, as well as improve our national and global economy,

security, and environment.

He targets CEOs, industry leaders, and MBAs because they have the

influence and resources to make clean energy a top priority in their

firms. Cumulatively, they will empower the private sector to succeed

where government has failed. The resulting clean energy revolution will

transform the U.S. and world.

Reads like a novel. Inspires legacy thinking. Challenges business

leaders to be civic-minded and morally upstanding.

Steve Melink is founder and CEO of Melink

Corporation, a pioneer and leader in clean

energy since 1987. He also is a national expert

and speaker on the topic. Clients include Apple,

Google, Microsoft, Target, Walmart, Darden,

McDonald’s, Starbucks, Marriott, Hilton, Publix,

Whole Foods, P&G, Cornell, University of

California, and U.S. Army and Navy.

Melink headquarters is LEED Platinum and

Net-Zero Energy, with a vehicle fleet of all

hybrid and electric cars.

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CEOPOWER& LIGHT

Transcendent LeadershipFor A Sustainable World

Steve Melink

Jarndyce & Jarndyce Press

CEO Power & Light

Steve Melink

Copyright © by Steve Melink

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo copying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the author or the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Published by Jarndyce & Jarndyce Press Anthony W. Brunsman, President

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015949907

ISBN – 978-0-9864238-5-7

E-Book ISBN – 978-0-9864238-6-4

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition, 2015

This book is dedicated to the children of the world.It is for their children too. And it is for the bright

future I believe we can and will secure for them.

Dedication

Integrity Is Everything

ContentsForeword 1Introduction - A Strategic Advantage 3

PART1Great Is The Need, So Is The Cause Chapter1: Integrity Is Everything 12Chapter2: It’s The Economy, Smarty 23Chapter3: No, It’s Our National Security 35Chapter4: Our Children Say It’s The Environment 43

PART2Solutions Are Available And Cost-Effective Chapter5: Energy Conservation—Culture Is King 54Chapter6: Energy Efficiency—Low-Hanging Fruit 63Chapter7: Renewable Energy—Hedging With Free Fuel 71Chapter8: Financing—Thinking Outside The Box 80

PART3Question: Why Aren’t We Doing More? Chapter9: Leadership Lacking Vision … 92Chapter10: … Leads To Short-Term Gratification 100Chapter11: … Leads To Exploiting Resources 108Chapter12: The Elephant In The Room 114

PART4Answer: We Need More Transcendent Leaders Chapter13: A CEO’s Highest Calling 126Chapter14: Our Civic Duty 136Chapter15: The Moral Imperative 143Chapter16: Bless Our Heroes 150

PART5Melink Story And Calling Chapter17: Searching For Resolution 162Chapter18: Revelation To Revolution 171Chapter19: Net-Zero Energy—Savings And More 177Chapter20: Spreading The Word 187

Conclusion - A Brighter Tomorrow 197

1

CEO Power & Light is a message of opportunity to business leaders. More than short-term profitability, we have the responsibility to make our businesses stronger and more sustainable for the long term. Clean energy is a largely untapped strategy for making this possible.

Steve Melink shows we should be thinking even bigger, though. Our combined investments in clean energy can spark an economic boom that will power us through the 21st century. They can also make us energy independent and end our reliance on foreign oil. Moreover, they can turn the tide on the potentially greatest threat we face as a civilization—climate change.

I was fortunate to have made an impact on Steve’s thinking back in 2004 at a sustainability conference where I spoke. He went on to design and construct a super-green corporate headquarters in Ohio. And I had the great pleasure of awarding his company a LEED Gold plaque at their grand opening in 2006. But that was just the start of bigger things to come.

Now, almost ten years later, Steve has written a book about his journey and evolution as a business leader. It’s rare for a CEO to write about the importance of integrity and the larger role we have as U.S. and world citizens. But Steve has issued such a challenge to us. I am honored to have played a role in his becoming a transcendent leader.

Kevin Hydes, CEO / Integral Group

Foreword

Introduction

3

I have one goal in writing CEO Power & Light—inspire chief executive officers to embrace sustainability for its strategic value. Pure and simple. Those who do, I believe, will compete more successfully in the twenty-first century and make the world a better place at the same time.

There are more than enough books on green best practices for architects and engineers, educators and policymakers, as well as environmentalists and consumers. But no book on sustainability focuses on the one segment of our population that can make the biggest and quickest impact. Until now.

This book is written for CEOs because, individually, you have the authority to make sustainability a top priority and long-term commitment in your companies. And when multiplied by thousands of your peers, collectively, you have the revolutionary power to transform the United States and her global neighbors.

Its message of empowerment is also for those in the C-suite and upper management ranks who may one day be called to serve as CEOs. And by extension, this book is for fast-track managers and MBA students looking for their own competitive advantage—not to mention one for their companies and country.

In our post-Great Recession era, sustainability has become a prerequisite to survivability. It’s also becoming a necessary platform for future growth and success.

CEOs, therefore, would do well to integrate its increasingly self-evident principles in everything from their vision and mission to their culture and values. Sustainability can no longer be just a token

A Strategic Advantage

Introduction

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motto on a company website, a single staff person managing office recycling, or a feel-good Earth Day event.

CEO Power & Light offers a unique perspective on what is truly at stake—every company’s future profits, as well as our national and global economy, security, and the environment. This book also serves as a primer on transcendent leadership and explains why CEOs need to embrace this new and higher level of service.

Before getting too idealistic for the average left-brain, ROI-fixated executive though, let me say the following based on my nearly thirty-year career as a business owner: Sustainability should be a primal instinct of every CEO for the compelling reason that it will make his or her business stronger and healthier.

How is that?First, sustainability encourages your workforce to drive out

waste like never before. By reducing materials, labor, energy, water, and overhead waste streams, you will increase efficiency and profits. Operating managers refer to this process as lean manufacturing, Six Sigma quality, and other jargon. The name isn’t important, but the results are. And those results are showing that more and more companies worldwide are reaping the benefits.

Toyota is one of them. Its penchant for continuous improvement processes is legendary. And it’s a key reason the company is the largest manufacturer in one of the largest industries in the world.

Second, sustainability sends your employees a powerful message that goes beyond efficiency and profits. It tells them that integrity and respect for future generations are fundamental to the company’s purpose and culture. This, in turn, attracts and retains more committed and engaged employees because they want to be part of something bigger than themselves.

Google is a destination employer for some of the best talent in the world because of this. The company’s commitment to culture is so strong that it consistently ranks as one of the Best Places to Work—anywhere.

Third, it sends your customers a similarly powerful message that you care about them as more than the other half of a business transaction. This attracts and retains customers for the same reason it does employees.

Introduction

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Starbucks is famous for making you feel good about getting your caffeine fix every morning. It’s why you see a line of customers at almost every store. No wonder Starbucks has become one of the top restaurant chains in the world—selling coffee.

Yes, you need to provide great products and services; that’s as important as always. But companies that go beyond and make sustainability integral to their brand can earn heightened respect, loyalty, and even devotion from the market.

Apple, the most valuable company in the world, is a perfect example. Its commitment to use clean energy and be part of the solution to global environmental challenges is just one reason the company has become a social icon.

More than profitAverage CEOs have a single-minded obsession with making

their companies more profitable. Great CEOs go beyond. They are reflective enough to ask themselves soul-searching questions: Am I serving as an upstanding corporate citizen for my country and the world? How can I further leverage my talents, influence, and resources to make a bigger difference? Will my legacy endure after I am gone in a way that will make my children, community, and industry proud?

Never have the answers to those questions been more important. As the world’s population grows from 7 billion to nearly 10 billion by 2050,1 sustainability-related best practices will no longer be optional but absolutely necessary. And with rapidly developing countries such as China and India bringing billions of people closer to our standard of living, the United States will be challenged like never before.

For example, American workers will face unprecedented levels of competition as productivity grows in those countries. That will be good for some global companies, but a huge risk for the U.S. economy as a whole. Fewer and lower-paying jobs are not a prescription for prosperity. Sustainability will better ensure we provide products and services of great value—and earn invaluable respect within the workplace and marketplace.

Population growth and increased living standards will affect our

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national security as well. Growing demand for resources around the world puts power in the hands of those who control these resources by virtue of geography—whether they are stable, democratic states or unfriendly, authoritarian despots.

Business as usual will continue to force us into risky entanglements in dangerous parts of the world and put our—and our allies’—standard of living at the mercy of people who wish us ill. Think of our dependence on Middle Eastern oil, or the European Union’s dependence on Russian natural gas. Sustainability is an opportunity for our allies and us to become more self-sufficient with the resources we have.

And then there’s our one and only planet Earth, and something called our environment. As companies devour ever-greater amounts of energy, water, and limited natural resources, many ecosystems around the globe will become stressed to the point of possible extinction.

In fact, air, land, and water pollution can be a greater long-term threat to our health and security than tyrants and terrorists against whom we are willing to justify spending hundreds of billions of dollars.

Unfortunately, experience tells us that government is likely to be too dysfunctional to solve these large-scale problems. Politicians only seem to work together when there is an imminent threat such as terrorism. So what are successful business leaders to do?

I contend that CEOs can and should step up to these challenges. Their leadership, influence, and resources—when multiplied by thousands of get-it-done business executives—can make a transformative and winning difference.

The United States was founded by inspired people—farmers, merchants, lawyers, inventors, renaissance men—whose common mission, individual genius, financial sacrifice, military service, and noble pursuit of a better world for future generations made a great country possible.

We need more of these traits today. The attitude of too many Americans is that someone else should solve the world’s problems for us. And the costs should be borne by others as well. What would our forefathers think of such complacency today?

Introduction

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If you know history and believe in Providence, as I do, America was no accident. Our rise from colonial backwater to global superpower and our triumph over tyranny in the Civil War, World War I, World War II and the Cold War provide us with a unique perspective on the power of principled leadership—not to mention the good it can bring the entire world.

I believe the obligations to our fellow Americans and the world at large are no less important today, and embracing sustainability is one of them. Our country, sadly, is not currently leading the world in this crucial endeavor and we are weaker as a result. CEOs, in particular, are called to respond in a way that is commensurate with their God-given abilities.

Yes, the job of CEOs is to make their companies profitable. But the point of CEO Power & Light is to show that leaders can make their companies even more successful by making a full-fledged commitment to sustainability.

Employees will reward them; customers will reward them; and investors will reward them. Moreover, by fulfilling their civic duty as American and world citizens—and improving our economy, security, and environment—CEOs will further fulfill their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders. What goes around comes around.

Why should you listen to me? Who am I to challenge CEOs so boldly, and what qualifies me to

write this book? Undoubtedly, some of you are leading large, multinational

businesses with more workers than my energy solutions company could ever hope to employ. And others of you have developed expertise that puts you in a league of your own.

What I offer is nearly three decades of proven leadership and results in the field of sustainability—in the heart of the conservative Midwest where change comes hard. My experience allows me to share perspectives ranging from being a manager in a large public company to becoming an entrepreneur to building an innovative medium-size business.

Sustainability, more than any other strategy, program, or initiative, has given my company the opportunity to thrive and

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become successful beyond my wildest hopes and expectations. My paternal grandparents immigrated to the United States from

Italy and what is now Slovenia. My mother grew up on a farm in central Ohio, and my father worked in the iron ore mines of northern Minnesota while enduring the Great Depression.

Dad became a bridge engineer in Patton’s Third Army during WWII, and with his company built a pontoon bridge over the Rhine so American tanks and soldiers could pour into Nazi Germany. My parents met after the war and had nine children. Each of us went to college and beyond to pursue the American Dream of a better life.

In 1987, I founded Melink Corporation, which has since become a pioneer and leader in energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions for the commercial building industry. We are based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and now have four separate businesses.

Melink T&B provides heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) testing and balancing services; Intelli-Hood manufactures energy-saving controls for commercial kitchen ventilation systems; Melink Solar develops solar photovoltaic (PV) projects; and Melink Geo finances and commissions geothermal HVAC systems.

During the past 28 years, our company has had the privilege of working with some of the largest and most successful organizations in the world. Our client roster includes Apple, Google, Walmart, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Verizon, the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Department of Veterans Affairs, Yum! Brands, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Target, Whole Foods, Publix, Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Siemens, Harvard, Ohio State University, the University of California, and Indianapolis Power & Light, among myriad others.

Our corporate headquarters is LEED Platinum certified, Energy Star rated with 99 of 100 points, and has achieved Net-Zero Energy status, which means we generate more electricity than we consume over the course of the year. We also have a fleet of hybrid and electric cars, as well as charging stations, in our parking lot.

This book includes my personal story of inspiration and growth. My journey started after attending a green building conference in 2004 and experiencing an epiphany of sorts. I decided our company would help lead the sustainability movement, and instinctively

Introduction

9

believed this would make us a better and stronger company.When we built our super-green headquarters in 2005, I

was surprised to find people wanting to visit us from all across the Midwest to learn about the costs and benefits of our green experiment. This motivated me to keep pushing the envelope—and motivated visitors to keep returning. We have never looked back.

Owning and operating a Net-Zero Energy building clearly offers significant energy savings compared to a conventional building. But I learned this savings is small compared to the HR and PR benefits of attracting and retaining more professional and passionate employees—and earning additional respect and loyalty in the marketplace.

The upshot is our company now has a more powerful mission, a more highly engaged workforce, exponentially growing sales and profits, marquee customers that many companies would die for, and a culture of integrity and service that makes it truthful to say “TGIM” on Monday mornings.

Having been a CEO and business owner for as long as I have, I understand and appreciate the pressures and demands most of you face every day. It’s extremely difficult to create new growth opportunities and mitigate risks at the same time.

The good news is sustainability does both. And there are many CEOs more successful than I making this case. Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Larry Page, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett, Starbucks’ Howard Schultz, Whole Foods’ John Mackey, Walmart’s Doug McMillon, and Tesla’s Elon Musk are some of them.

I hope this book inspires many CEOs, including you. I also hope it will lead to authentic change within your organization—and ultimately across America. The world desperately needs great leaders. You should be one of them.

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Before discussing sustainability, we need to talk about integrity. Why? Because integrity is the foundation of every successful human relationship. And without successful human relationships, organizations are doomed to fail.

Without integrity, in other words, companies are not sustainable. No CEO’s charisma, financial savvy, or technical expertise can make up for the production, teamwork, and innovation that are inevitably lost when there is a lack of honesty, respect, and fairness in the workplace.

A company without integrity may stay in business for a period of time. But make no mistake—a flawed culture and its leadership will eventually be exposed and the company kept from realizing its potential.

Consider a 2015 Gallup survey that shows only 31 percent of American employees are engaged in their work.2 Such a low number should shake every CEO to the core. Think how this negatively impacts our productivity, quality, turnover, absenteeism—and profitability!

In fact, Gallup estimates low engagement costs the United States $450 billion to $550 billion per year.3 Talk about a lost opportunity in the Land of Opportunity. If this is not an indictment on us as leaders, I don’t know what is. Imagine how much more successful our employees and companies would be—not to mention our national economy—if we could double engagement to 60 percent.

What does this have to do with integrity? Everything.

Integrity Is Everything

Chapter1

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To a large degree, employees are not engaged because they feel used and underappreciated. They are often treated like subjects, given directives without being asked their opinion, told things that are purposely vague if not sometimes untrue, communicated to via impersonal emails, and expected to work evenings and weekends at the expense of personal time. And then they get laid off, more often due to poor leadership and management than their own mistakes. Then the cycle repeats itself.

Let’s face it—most workers feel rightfully jaded by their experience in corporate America. And, undoubtedly, we have personally witnessed these demotivating if not dysfunctional behaviors, and know the harm they can do to individual and team morale.

So, now that we are captains of our companies’ culture, it is time we change this. The sooner we hold everyone accountable—especially ourselves—to a higher level of integrity-based behavior, the sooner we will see increased employee engagement.

For treating everyone with honesty, respect, and fairness from the top down is the best—and perhaps only—way to ensure a safe and healthy work environment where positive intentions and great work can flourish.

Salaries and wages are the single largest line-item expense on the P&L for most companies. Very often, they represent 50 percent or more of total sales. This means companies that increase employee productivity by, say, 10 percent through increased engagement can potentially increase their profitability by millions.

We will talk later about the opportunity to save energy. But an even greater opportunity is tapping into human energy—a far more valuable commodity. After all, most employees truly yearn to become a more productive and valuable asset for their companies.

Integrity, more than financial, marketing, or technological prowess, makes this possible. Technology can boost productivity to a degree, but it cannot force great communication, collaborative teamwork, and a strong work ethic. Being honest, respectful, and fair toward employees elicit these behaviors naturally.

In the early days of industrialization, large companies could exploit their workers through sheer market power. But in our more

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socially connected—and socially conscious—world that is no longer possible.

With transparency increasing, CEOs have to be accountable to all stakeholders—not just shareholders. In fact, the fastest growing companies are succeeding by winning the public’s hearts and minds, not by taking advantage of employees and customers.

The point is, integrity sells. Doing the least bad is no longer a respectable—not to mention inspiring—business strategy in the twenty-first century. Doing the most good is.

Apple is the most valuable company in the world for a lot of reasons. One is that it takes a most-good versus least-bad approach to business. For example, its decision to invest in solar power and minimize its reliance on fossil fuel-based electricity may cost the company more in the short run.

But principled decisions like this allow Apple to attract highly talented, engaged, and passionate employees. This, in turn, allows it to design and manufacture insanely great products that attract tens of millions of customers.

Many other companies purposely incur higher costs—and lower revenue—to do the right thing too. Whole Foods weans suppliers using pesticides and fertilizers; Starbucks requires its coffee beans come from ethical sources; Chick-fil-A closes its stores on Sundays in keeping with its religious beliefs; and CVS stopped selling cigarettes to be more consistent with its health-based mission.

We all know that most truly successful businesspeople go out of their way to ensure a great customer experience. Is it because great service is cheaper? Of course not. It is because integrity—and all its variants, including honesty, respect, and fairness—almost always increases sales and profits in the end.

Therefore, I believe one of the greatest opportunities of the twenty-first century is for American-style capitalism to continue its evolution from exploitation and greed to integrity and service. The sooner we CEOs embrace the notion that the quality of our profits is more important than the quantity of our profits, the quicker and larger our advantage and success will be.

Some CEOs believe that integrity is necessarily at odds with capitalism. But capitalism does not dictate they be unfair, dishonest,

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and disrespectful toward others. Nor does it say they must embrace greed. In fact, CEOs who do jeopardize their reputations and sometimes even the livelihoods and lives of others.

Capitalism is—or should be—about competition, not greed. The difference might be subtle but critical. This is because competition connotes and breeds positive, constructive behaviors, while greed connotes and breeds negative, destructive ones.

High-profile collapses of companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Lehman Brothers, as well as people such as Dennis Kozlowski, Bernie Madoff, and Martha Stewart, are just a few reminders of the devastation greed can leave in its wake. But I am also reminded of companies engaged in less egregious but just as insidious behaviors.

Examples include CEOs of oil and natural gas companies who refuse to disclose the potentially dangerous chemicals they use for hydraulic fracturing (fracking). And CEOs who set up shell operations overseas to avoid U.S. corporate taxes, as well as CEOs who pay themselves hundreds of times more than the average line worker.

Yes, great leadership involves more than living a life of integrity. Communicating a compelling vision and mission, innovating new products and services, and recruiting and developing future talent are also important.

But if we are not honest, respectful, and fair with everyone in our sphere of influence, we are operating on a slippery slope. Our cultures will be wrong, the type of people we attract to our organizations will be wrong, and ultimately the value propositions to our customers will be wrong.

At its core, integrity is about respecting others—and thereby making us and our companies open to the possibility of earning it. Giving respect is so fundamental to developing successful relationships that it’s amazing many adults—not to mention CEOs—are still struggling to acquire this basic skill set.

Thus, if you do not give and earn respect in the workplace and marketplace, you will more than likely not earn long-term success either. The correlation becomes nearly perfect over time. That’s why companies including Walmart and McDonald’s raised their store worker wages in 2015. Paying the minimum wage was proving to be detrimental to both their top and bottom line.

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In fact, in this social-media era—where reputations spread in minutes and days rather than months and years—integrity is everything.

Sustainability is becoming everything tooPeople often ask me how and why I ventured down the path

of becoming a sustainability leader. I tell them it was an epiphany moment at a green building conference in the summer of 2004. More on this story later, but the concept that our buildings should be healthier, more comfortable, and more energy and water efficient instinctively resonated with me.

It was empowering to believe that buildings in the twenty-first century—where we live, work, and play—should be designed, constructed, operated and maintained as sustainably as possible.

Having worked in the building industry my entire career, I was all too familiar with the cheap, lowest-first-cost approach taken toward our offices, schools, and homes. The entire industry, with its open-loop, cradle-to-grave process, was in need of an overhaul. No, a revolution! The green building movement was mine to help lead.

Inspiration led to education, and I started on a journey that continues to this day. Bottom line, I’ve learned that sustainability—green buildings and communities, energy efficiency and renewable energy, and so many other related fields—is an outward manifestation of what integrity means to me.

Granted, I happened to be in the business of selling energy efficiency products and services. And you might think I simply became enamored by a new way to grow my business. But the more I learned about green buildings and sustainability, the more I realized how congruent they are with my personal values.

As a man of faith and son of two Depression-era parents, I have always seen waste as a bad thing. And I have always seen conservation as a good thing. So, I was able to meld my personal values with my profession—and for the first time feel this was and still is my life’s calling.

If I haven’t been clear enough, sustainability is integrity. It’s being honest, respectful, and fair toward everyone—including future generations. And it is caring for our God-given natural world—the

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plant and animal life on which we all depend for sustenance and enjoyment.

Plundering the planet for profit is antithetical to integrity. I know some of you are thinking, “Get real, Steve. Profit comes

first. And then if we want, we can worry about people and planet.” The problem with this approach is revealing itself as the world’s population continues increasing and new challenges relative to our global economy, security, and environment become evermore obvious.

As discussed earlier, no company—and by logical extension family, country, or civilization—can endure and grow as a healthy organization without a culture of integrity. And so, my above arguments would now suggest that no company can endure and grow without a culture of sustainability either.

It is probably a mind-bender for many CEOs to think they must not only act in the best interest of their companies, but also for the greater good of our nation and the world. However, fundamental human needs and values—like respect and clean air—are not only for the people we work with and sell to. Like freedom and equality, they should be for everyone.

In fact, a company embracing sustainability is telling its current and prospective employees and customers, as well as the public at large, that it respects them and their children and grandchildren first and foremost—more than it respects the temporary benefit from any particular transaction.

And when demonstrated in real ways through a company’s operations, this engenders trust. And trust is the ultimate brand that builds great companies.

Those who think and act on this level, in my opinion, deserve the distinction of being called transcendent leaders. They are not only concerned about themselves and their companies. They are also concerned about doing the right thing for their country and the world at large. I will introduce you to a number of such leaders in future chapters.

Some people believe protecting America is the responsibility of our elected representatives in Washington and our brave troops. But protecting America is the responsibility of every citizen of this country—and most especially those blessed with the talents,

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education, leadership ability, and resources to make the necessary changes. Yes, that means you and me.

Like our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents who courageously endured World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War in the twentieth century, we have the same moral responsibility to bravely fight against our generation’s biggest enemies.

And based on current trends and projections, I believe our growing economic, security, and environmental risks give us CEOs more than enough reason to unite behind the great cause of sustainability.

There are, of course, many great causes worthy of our support. Helping end poverty, disease, and injustice are a few. But sustainability has the unique ability to prevent human suffering that is universal and irreversible.

By definition, sustainability suggests that without it all other causes will become moot. So while feeding the poor, curing cancer, and fighting discrimination are important, leading sustainability efforts within our companies and across our communities stands to be our most important and lasting legacy.

Calling out EnergySustainability is obviously a broad topic. The question is: How

can we manage this problem—or opportunity—to make the biggest and quickest impact?

I contend that energy is the area in which CEOs can make the most strategic investments and yield the greatest returns for their companies—as well as for the United States and the world at large. Therefore, this book will focus on it rather than other areas that will certainly deserve more attention over time.

Water, for example, is a very critical aspect of sustainability but is currently less expensive than energy. And unless we solve our energy problem, we will not be able to solve our water problem.

The same can be said of food, materials, land, and transportation. They are all critical in the long term and highly interrelated. But energy offers the greatest opportunity for the business sector in both the short and long term.

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In fact, energy is one of our single largest costs. Like salary and wages, depending on the industry, it can represent up to 50 percent or more of total revenues. But we tend not to realize this because it is disguised throughout our P&L under other names.

For instance, energy-intensive materials such as concrete and steel, incoming and outgoing freight, Internet subscriptions and cloud data storage, sales and service travel for employees, and lost production due to power outages are typically accounted for under names other than energy.

As with total quality, total energy is much larger than a single line item. Therefore, we need to start treating energy as the strategic opportunity it is.

Based on my experience, the best way to do this is to set bold goals and commit for the long term. More specifically, invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy opportunities such as solar and wind power to make your company more energy independent. And diversify away from fossil fuels to hedge the risk of uncontrollable utility rates in the future.

More importantly, your company will be seen as part of the solution—and maybe even a market leader—rather than the problem. Brown power from conventional fossil fuel plants might be cheap, but so are cars without seatbelts and air bags. Dirty emissions are increasingly seen as a liability, and it’s time CEOs get ahead of this problem and assert their leadership.

When multiplied by thousands of companies, these strategic investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy will make the United States and the world a better place in three major ways:

Economy: U.S. public companies have trillions of dollars of cash sitting on the sidelines waiting to be invested in a productive way. Given the above need and opportunity to lead, CEOs should commit a certain percentage of their profits or capital budget—say, 5 to 10 percent—toward energy efficiency and renewable energy. This is what my company did, and we made our headquarters a Net-Zero Energy facility within five years.

The cumulative investment of hundreds of billions of dollars would transform America’s economy. Together we would create

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hundreds of thousands of jobs and save tens of billions of dollars in energy every year.

Moreover, the United States would likely become the leader in the emerging Clean Energy Age. Rather than let China, Germany, and Japan dominate this next greatest economic opportunity, we could become the world’s primary manufacturer and exporter of solar panels and wind turbines, as well as electric vehicles and battery technologies.

Security: Energy efficiency and renewable energy would make us safer and less vulnerable to war and terrorism. One of the major reasons Russia, Iran, and Venezuela are belligerent is because they can afford to be—thanks to the nationalization of their oil supplies. Even though the United States is not dependent on them, many countries are. ISIS and other enemies are similarly funded. This has to stop.

Environment: Energy efficiency and renewable energy would make our world safer, cleaner, and healthier. There would be fewer coalmine disasters, coal-ash slides, natural gas explosions, earthquakes, and water contamination risks from fracking and radiation leaks.

There would be less land, water, and air pollution caused by the process of mining, drilling, burning, and disposing of fossil fuels and their waste. There would be less sulfur dioxide, mercury, and particulates in the air to cause respiratory and coronary diseases.

Perhaps most important, these investments would help mitigate the long-term risks of climate change caused by the rampant burning of fossil fuels and emission of greenhouse gases.

Altogether, the combined economic, security, and environmental benefits of a long-term energy strategy—planned and executed by the U.S. business sector—would flow to our top and bottom lines. Much as the computer and Internet ages did for America and the world in the past 35 years.

Our businesses would be more strategically competitive and the United States more globally competitive. There would be less need for future federal stimulus programs, fighting petro-dictators and terrorists, and subsidizing environmental and healthcare programs. We could then even reduce corporate tax rates.

Integrity Is Everything

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Calling out CEOsThis book is written for CEOs because we are one of the major

reasons our economy, security, and environment are at risk. Of course, it is easy to blame political leaders for what ails us as a nation, but the reality is the business sector drives the economy, individual companies drive the business sector, and CEOs drive companies.

Just because our influence is dispersed across thousands of companies, it does not mean our collective voice should be muted. If relatively poor people can use social media to create a political revolution in places like Egypt, better educated and well-resourced business leaders should be able to create an energy revolution in the United States.

Certainly, improved federal and state policies would go a long way to help our economy. But CEOs should not wait around for the government to tell them what to do. For all the talk about the president and Congress, they have relatively little say in the day-to-day operations of companies.

With power divided among three branches of government, a two-party system, and countless special interest groups, it is almost impossible to advance a long-term vision in Washington.

Therefore, when it comes to making our companies, our country, and the world more sustainable, we need to step up. The energy solutions are available and cost-effective today. And based on my experience, all we really need is the resolve to implement them—starting today.

What’s holding us back? Average CEOs are unduly fixated on today’s stock prices and tomorrow’s bonuses rather than long-term performance, workplace and marketplace leadership, and civic duty. They are operating with a twentieth-century mindset that exploitation and greed are still socially acceptable.

On the surface, these CEOs may appear successful, but only because standard accounting practices ignore their companies’ external costs. To a growing universe of stakeholders, however, these CEOs are not only not successful they are becoming increasingly liable for the costs they impose on societies, future generations, and the natural world.

If Danish citizens can sue their government for not acting quickly

CEO POWER & LIGHT

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enough against the risks of climate change, what might that mean for American CEOs and company boards in the future?

Of course, we could wait for the workplace and marketplace to recognize these truths at their own pace. But a surer path of success would be for CEOs to get out ahead of these threats and risks—and serve as real leaders of integrity.

Absolutely, CEOs must compete and earn fair and healthy profits for the benefit of their organizations. But they must also balance this purpose with what is good for their country, the world, and the future of our planet.