A wide range of businesses are improving their environmental performance beyond what government regulations require and are finding that doing so boosts their images and saves them money. United Parcel Service has developed a reusable delivery envelope and increased its use of recycled materials, moves that are cutting energy consumption and solid waste, saving 2,200 trees a year, and cutting $1.6 million in costs annually. DuPont has announced that by 2010, it plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 65 percent, use no more energy than it did in 1990, and meet 10 percent of its energy needs with renewable sources. Weyerhaeuser is saving some $200,000 to $500,000 a year through an experimental program in which the EPA reduced regulatory requirements at a Georgia pulp mill in exchange for the company promising to make big pollution cuts.
