Many companies and industries are starting to take actions and restructure their organization to adapt themselves to this new permanent issue and reduce their emission of carbon dioxide.

Wind Power
Wind turbines, or windmills, use strong wind to create pollution-free, renewable electricity.

Solar energy
The sun's energy can help produce electricity in two ways: photovoltaic (PV) systems and solar thermal systems. PV systems change sunlight directly into electricity.

Bio materials
Oil and natural gas are both raw materials and fuels needed to manufacture plastics. Plastic makers can reduce CO2 emissions by switching the raw materials to bio-based materials such as plant sugars, and they can use renewable fuels for the manufacturing process.

Hotel business
Many hotels ask their guests if they mind reusing towels to save washing, but this is just the tip of a very big iceberg. With a little thought and organization far more actions can happen behind the scenes.

Replacing normal light bulbs with energy efficient ones makes significant savings greatly outweighing the initial outlay. Monitoring of energy consumers, such as boilers, chillers and cooling towers, ensures they remain at their most efficient. The installation of a combined heat and power system may be costly but will significantly reduce harmful emissions, while making use of the heat produced to generate more heat and electricity.

Some other simple methods to reduce energy consumption and induce savings are:
- Operate laundries during off-peak periods when demand is low.
- Turn all thermostats down one degree – the guests won’t notice but it will reflect in the bill at the end of the month.
- Install timers or motion detectors in areas where lights tend to be left on.
- Establish a housekeeping policy to switch everything off as soon as a guest vacates a room – or even install a key system that does so automatically.
- Clean condensers on the back of fridges and freezers to ensure optimal performance.

When it comes to waste reduction there are a host of potential actions: using both sides of paper is overlooked by many companies; recycling bottles, tins, paper, plastic and even oil is simply a matter of organization; cutting up old sheets and towels for cleaning rags; providing soap dispensers in bathrooms or donating unfinished guest toiletries to a local home or school.

Many businesses who have improved their environmental credentials have also found that they receive much higher exposure in the marketplace. Hotels that have integrated environmental responsibility into their core business practices while achieving significant cost savings, good public relations and customer loyalty and are obviously going to be in favour with their stakeholders.