The good news for CEOs looking to go green is that sustainability initiatives across industries follow a common blueprint.

*Efficiency improvements are often the low-hanging fruit of sustainability and a good place for businesses to start. Efficiencies enhance existing products or processes, such as modifying engine design to burn 20 percent less fuel or redesigning product packaging to reduce waste.

*Product innovation goes beyond efficiency improvements to create fundamental change in products and processes. Innovation requires ideas that challenge the status quo and significant R&D and marketing investments. While product- and customer-acceptance risks are high for innovation, so too are the potential rewards. Examples include development of thin-module photovoltaic solar cells and algae-based biodiesel, both with the potential to significantly change the economics of renewable energy.

*Consumer awareness communicates the value of your program and is key to building brand equity. Transparency offers accountability to the program and avoids greenwashing. Many awareness programs are also promoted as educational, providing a series of sustainability best practices to improve industry at large.

*Carbon mitigation offsets greenhouse gas emissions through projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere. The Kyoto Protocol's cap-and-trade mechanism created the framework for carbon trading as a way to meet mandatory emissions targets. It also paved the way for a voluntary carbon market where individuals or companies without mandatory requirements can purchase offsets to be carbon neutral.

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