(NewsUSA) - As the reality of global warming heats up, many companies are committing themselves to eco-friendly and socially responsible practices in order to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
For example, companies are cutting fossil fuel reliance by using wind power and creating more eco-friendly products such as roof tiles that deliver solar power to buildings.
Other companies are pursuing efforts to slash greenhouse gas emissions by decreasing automobile pollution. For example, the pharmaceutical company Roche is integrating Toyota Prius and Ford Escape hybrid vehicles into its pharmaceutical sales fleet.
Roche began its pilot hybrid-car program in 2004. Today 15 percent of the company's sales representatives drive company-owned hybrid vehicles, reducing greenhouse emission by 1,033 tons per year. (The company's sales representatives drive an average of 20,000 miles per year.) In addition, Roche will save more than 80,000 gallons of gas per year by switching to these hybrid vehicles.
For the average car-owning American, driving is one of the top two daily pollution-causing activities - the other being electricity use. An average household with two medium-sized sedans emits more than 20,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Scientists believe that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases caused by automobile emissions are contributing to global warming, resulting in problems such as tornadoes, droughts, winter storms, forest fires and damage to water resources. But reducing tailpipe emissions can help to put the brakes on a global climate crisis.
"Roche's hybrid-car program demonstrates the company's commitment to corporate social responsibility and is a prime example of how all companies can make a contribution," said Terry F. Yosie, president and chief executive officer of World Environment Center, an independent, not-for-profit, non-advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
For more information on ways that you can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent global climate change, visit the World Environment Center Web site at www.wec.org.