Improving Environmental Leadership: Asking Better Questions about Existing Inefficiencies☆

Abstract Physicist John Wheeler once commented that, “we shape the world by the questions we ask.” By asking better questions about how we can more efficiently produce our nation's goods and services, environmental leadership no longer means ratcheting down the economy. Rather, it becomes more an issue of how we can put our technological know-how and leadership to work. When we think about encouraging more investment in more productive technologies, we are taking the first step that will both save money and reduce environmental impacts. And it appears that more businesses are beginning to ask those tougher and better questions. The remaining question is whether we can sufficiently increase the number of businesses who are willing to ask those harder questions, and who are willing to explore new ways to turn missed opportunities into real world savings – to the benefit of the environment. Paraphrasing the great English economist, John Maynard Keynes, “the difficulty lies not with the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones.”