"Greening" your company, via any number of means, obviously brings multiple benefits to the physical environment. But while going green may be the responsible thing to do, many companies shy away from these sustainability measures. The reason is their (common) misconception that the costs will outweigh any benefit, that there is no bottom-line value in environmentally responsible business practices. In fact, this belief may be false, because setting a green path can often improve your bottom line.

It wasn't exactly a cast of thousands. But when The Volvo Group set out to slash energy usage at its North American manufacturing plants, it called on a wealth of partners from both the private and public sectors for help.