by Doug Gardner 
The inner eco-warier in me was really pleased to see that Salesforce had hit its renewable energy pledge, especially as they had done so 33 years early! I was particularly interested though in why the Salesforce executive vice president, Mark Hawkins, claimed that it was good for business.
It appears to me that the reasons for this can be broken down into three main areas, internal business costs, likelihood of gaining new customers and its effect on retaining customers.
The first area, internal business costs comes down to the fact that renewable energy can be provided locally, even building to building and give you a cheaper, continuous energy flow. This has been shown with great effect by IKEA who are well on their way to every one of their stores being energy neutral. At present getting to this place is constrained by the power companies. Such constraints will disappear over time though making this a good bit of future proofing and meaning that Salesforce are in a strong position to influence the role out of these changes and therefore their costs.
The second element, gaining new customers, appears to be due to the rise of the environmental standard mandate that more and more companies are looking to fulfil with new suppliers. The idea therefore that they can choose the market leader and fulfil this mandate is increasingly inviting for customers. It is often thought that you have to forego ethics to get the best product so for a company of Salesforce’s standing to provide not only the best product, but also the best ethics is brilliant.
The third element, retaining customers, is also quite interesting and, I believe, will come more into play in the coming years. It seams to be that companies are increasingly starting to have eco-targets. Like any target, it is not seen of as acceptable to go backwards on this. In itself you might think that this would not stop people switching suppliers, and you would be right, however, it will mean that people are more likely to want to start talking with you if they are thinking about switching systems and this gives you the chance to make them happy again.
All in all I can see why Salesforce have invested in bringing about this change and combining it with their 1-1-1 mentality. It really does take them to a whole new level in the market whilst also helping them to be the positive influence on the world they aim to be.
Achieving net-zero emissions is a tremendous and important achievement that is also good for business.