As the earth warms the models predict more intense weather events and water may indeed become the next currency. For small business owner being viewed as sustainable not only makes great brand sense, but also great business sense. Being green will indeed become an important part of any customers brand experience and the efforts that small business owner make can be easy and innovative. A great example of how simple sustainability can be found in Mohan Sawhney's book the Global Brain. It tells the story of how Wallmart asked Dial to provide more sustainable products, and dial came up with soap that uses less water. How obvious and yet how simple, examining business processes can lead to process optimization and identify leaks and redundancies that use resources. Modeling all your business processes or hiring a consultant can provide an outside in view of the process and help in reducing its overall energy costs or if you will carbon footprint.  A great book on sustainability is The Next Sustainability Wave, authored by an x IBMer, Bob Willard, the book has a great appendix on the SME-Relevant Business Case, I would highly recommend grabbing a copy. Bob states that sustainability has a compelling SME business case and it is about being productive, producing a better product using fewer resources, diminishing ones products, processes and services to become more competitive. 

Bob thinks along the same lines that I do and that it is all about people, process and technology. Having an agile technology platform can be an enabler of sustainability and allow greater transparency into processes and data sets. However, technology should be viewed as an investment that generates returns like a mutual fund or CD. Many small business owners don't treat their technology as an investment, nor do they make strategic decisions with it. Then comes the day that suddenly they get to a point where they are running the business on spreadsheets they make the jump to the next greatest easy solution. The right technology platform can be a great enabler of sustainability, however close examination of the other two parameters, people and process are also seminal when it comes to energy usage, redundancy and simple process leaks.

More than likely the earth will continue to warm and perhaps the greatest impact will be on our oceans. Few know that 90% of the world's oxygen comes from the phytoplankton populations in the ocean. The ocean's

also control our weather and in spite of all the satellites and super computers we still don't understand the ocean atmosphere interface. 

Brand and brand experience are king moving forward especially in the connected world we now live in. Why let your competitors be first to claim they are green and sustainable. I see sustainability as a competitive differentiator in the market ahead as we fight for market share and customers.