Going green isn't just about social responsibility anymore, it's driving the bottom line of your business.

Environmentally friendly businesses attract and retain customers and also find there's sometimes a bonus payoff in reducing overheads.

Technology research firm and consultants Accenture, for example, surveyed more than 7,500 consumers worldwide in 17 countries and found more than 90 per cent of Canadian respondents are concerned about climate change.

What's more, 93 per cent of Canadians said they would switch to an energy provider with products or services that reduced carbon emissions and 71 per cent said they'd pay more - an average of 10 per cent more - to do their part.

"The initial impact may be most evident on energy providers, but it seems likely it will spread," said Sander van 't Noordende, group chief executive of Accenture's resources operating group.

"From oil and gas companies to retailers to financial services companies to governments, no provider of products or services will be immune from consumers' scrutiny and action."

Whether B2C to B2B, showing - and proving - your commitment to the cause is mission critical. Large enterprises don't want to be exposed doing business with an environmentally dangerous supplier any more than they want to discover they've been dealing with a sweatshop using child labour.

Even the most modest business can take some simple steps to clean up its carbon footprint. It's a great public-relation tool to remind customers they're not adding to the problem facing our planet and it's virtually painless.

Here's a list of Top 10 suggestions:

* Switch It: Joseph Zanchin put his environmental commitment in lights - literally - installing a wind turbine atop his Richmond Hill Honda dealership. Not only is the turbine a highly visible sign, it also generates 110 megawatts of power annually, enough to power 17 homes and will remove 82.5 tons of CO2 emissions a year. Businesses small and large could also copy companies such as Wal-Mart Canada and buy electricity from a sustainable power reseller like Bullfrog (bullfrogpower.com), which, in turn, buys contracts from energy companies that harness wind or other green sources. It costs a little more, but the hundreds of companies who have signed up think it's worth it.

* Park It: Encourage your staff to opt out of the rush hour a day or two a week and work from home. They'll appreciate the serenity, it'll cut emissions and you may find, as Sun Microsystems does, that it cuts real estate costs because employees can share desks. The California computer giant has saved more than $400 million since it began its program and, inspired by the success, Telus has launched a telework project for its 30,000 employees. The pilot program with 170 workers saved 13,865 hours of commuting time, avoided $125,000 in fuel and maintenance costs, reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 114 tons and air pollutants by four tons. Best of all, 82 per cent said teleworking actually made them more likely to remain a Telus employee.

* Intelligent IT: A Canadian Federation of Independent Business survey found 83 per cent of small business said "green" factors play a role when purchasing technology. Those constantly running PCs, servers and printers not only draw power, but generate heat, which, in turn, draws more power to run the HVAC. That's why technology makers including Hewlett Packard, Lenovo, Dell and Sun Microsystems are offering low-power, low-heat systems that not only generate less heat and use less power, they're also smaller, take up a lot less space and are quiet. Some are all-in-ones, such as the Apple iMac; others are cigar-box sized and hang on the back of the flat-screen LCD monitor.

* Don't Waste It: Think about what you throw out. Could that old computer be donated to a computer for schools program? Or will it just end up in landfill? Hewlett Packard, Lenovo and Dell, for example, have an eWaste program that guarantees obsolete product will be responsibly recycled. When equipment has reached the end of its lifecycle, ensure it is recycled by contacting a reputable contractor such as Geep Inc. (geepinc.com) or see if your municipality has a program such as Edmonton's that collects and dismantles electronic equipment for recycling.

* Videoconference It: It's the next best thing to being there, maybe better. Videoconferencing avoids having to fly across the country or around the world for a 20-minute meeting. HP's Halo's system, for example, or Cisco's Telepresence, are full high-definition with stellar sound and create such a real illusion of being face-to-face that you'll see the other guy sweat when you squeeze his margins. Such state-of-the-art systems are expensive, of course. There are cheaper in-house solutions that tap into your existing computer network, or you can book time in someone else's videoconference room.

* Offset Your Carbon: If you simply have no choice but to fly or drive for business, then offset your carbon emission by buying credits. Air Canada offers the credits through a partnership with zerofootprint.com and you'll find a carbon calculator there and at carbonzerocanada .com that will help figure how much carbon your business activities generate.

* Biofuels: If your business involves a fleet of vehicles or other motor-driven machinery, consider switching to biofuels. Ethanol is getting a bad rap because it takes more energy to make a litre of fuel than the fuel generates, but you could consider biodiesel. Government regulation will soon dictate diesel fuel at the pumps must contain two per cent biodiesel oil - made from oilseeds such as canola, soybeans or rapeseed - rising to 20 per cent over the next few years.

But some businesses have gone a step further, like Canadian Hummer Adventures (canadianhummeradventures.

com), which offers year-round off-road Hummer tours in the Collingwood, Ont., area of Georgian Bay. To offset negative perceptions about the Hummer's fuel consumption, founder Andrew Miller buys his fuel in the form of used potato-chip oil and has converted his vehicles to run on it.

* Keep Cool: Business dress used to be a three-piece suit and tie, but few people see it as the norm these days. Many companies institute a casual-clothes summer policy that allows employees a more relaxed dress code.

Cooler employees means the air conditioning doesn't have to be cranked to high and it also makes their commute a little more tolerable on those blistering summer days.

* Green Starts at Home: Most small businesses don't have the resources to custom-build a new headquarters to meet LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design) standards such as Manitoba Hydro's new Winnipeg headquarters. It incorporates state-of-the-art technology in energy efficiency and environmentally friendly design. A small business, though, could either lease space in a LEED-certified building or, perhaps, choose a location close to a train or subway station, or retrofit lighting with systems from Fifth Light (fifthlight.com), whose technology dims fluorescent lights by up to 75 per cent without reducing lumens (lighting power), cutting energy consumption by 35 per cent or more.

* Cut the Paper Trail: It seem laughable we once talked about how digital technology would create a paperless society. Yet you can cut paper consumption by making a conscious effort. Take a look at the filing cabinets stuffed with paper. Do you really need them? Could you use the space for something else? Have faxes delivered to the desktop, stop printing e-mails. Scan receipts as PDFs and store them digitally and switch to a digital invoicing system. Ask clients and suppliers if they would like to receive or send invoices electronically to cut down paper. And finally, look at the paper you're using. Xerox recently launched high-yield business paper that will be made in Canada and with less water and fewer chemicals, cutting greenhouse emissions by 75 per cent. Because it's lighter, it costs less to ship or mail.

(Ian Harvey can be reached at harvey@businessedge.ca)