The Cheapest Advice in my life
It was a boring conference. It was about implementation of environment within industrial corporations, but almost all speakers had an academic background and most of them gave the impression that they had never seen a factory from the inside. In the afternoon, I decided to leave early and to go for a drink at the bar. There I met a participant who told me to have exactly the same feeling. She was new in the field and had been sent to the conference by her employer, a big footwear & apparel company in the USA. Her mission was to develop ‘green’ ideas, to be discussed at their first company environmental conference. We chatted about how to implement EcoDesign and suddenly she asked: “What advice would you give to a company starting in this field? Based on the Philips experience the answer was easy: start with packaging & transport, which can be reduced by at least 10%.. She did not believe me and was particularly suspicious about the 10% figure. How could a well seasoned company still reduce so much? During a meal we discussed this over and over again and finally we decided to make a bet. It was settled that she would pay for the drinks and the food and if the target was not reached she would be epaid her money. For two years I did not hear anything, then I got a phone call. Some of the directors of the company were in Brussels and wanted o see me ecause he ompany ad een able o realize the 10% eduction arget. During the lavish Belgian lunch the story came out: at the environmental conference two years ago there were a few sug-gestions provided. The suggestion from ‘the weird professor from Holland’ was considered to be a mission impossible at first. Later it was accepted for lack of good alternatives and the organization was able to deliver. The result was hundreds of housands r may be ven millions f dollars saved. hank ou ery much.
国际会议
The 4th International Conference on Waste Management and Technology(第四届固体废物管理与技术国际会议)
北京
英文
37
2009-11-28（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）