Green thinking and green living has always been linked to doing something differently, causing yourself more headaches and allowing yourself less things. I know this kind of thinking is stupid, but it has seemed to me like that anyhow. You know all that recycling stuff and driving less and ... you know, I can understand the point of it, but ... except for the world having more chances to survive and not end up killing all the human beings, I haven't really been very motivated by the green living idea. Add to that the fact that I think green vegetables, you know those...green leaves and stuff that people tend to eat, to me the question has always been - why the hell should I eat weed (not The weed, but noxious plants)? I know, I know, I'm totally off-topic here, simply sharing my ignorance.

But, even I am learning. I have learned that if made well, I am actually capable of eating salad leaves and it can be good. Sometimes. In some small amounts. With lots of meat around. Preferably cooked, so it's kind of invisible and not real green stuff. Hmm, okay, maybe I haven't learned as much I thought I had, but there's one sort of green thinking even my kind of dumbster can understand. Money!

If being green (and no, in reality I don't think being green means eating green, hmm, or maybe ... ) means also that you can make money or save money, I start to get that, I start to get that a lot. Just recently there was a news that Empire State Building managed to cut their energy use by 38 percent. Yes, 38 percent! They did that with the help of Johnsons Controls and Jones Lang LaSalle as part of the Empire State Building retrofit project during which all 6500 windows were refurbished, the project also includes a chiller plant retrofit, new building controls as well as a web-based tenant energy management system.

The end result? During the first year, Empire State Building saved $2.4 million. Add the fact that Johnson Controls actually guaranteed the savings through a $20 million performance contract, being green has never been more profitable.