Lots of times clients have turned down my suggestions to look for new and better ways to become more sustainable because they fear it costs too much. Sometimes, it does cost a little more--in the case of a green building, a premium of perhaps a few percentage points. (Of course, I always argue that the attention you can receive for building green outweighs the costs by a great margin, but that's a subject for another post).

Here's a great example of how sustainability can create a cost savings. Intercall, a well-established video and teleconferencing service, has launched a marketing campaign touting the greenhouse gas savings of its services. It seems that when employees don't have to fly, that saves on carbon emissions and saves on the cost of airline tickets.

Most companies haven't even begun to tap the savings of teleconferencing (and its video cousin) but I'm betting that technological innovation (just look at Skype) in this area will grow ever faster if oil prices continue to rise over the long term.

And the smart companies that invest in teleconferencing will be the ones that save on future carbon taxes, too.