I know the world and its grandmother has been banging on about climate change and carbon emissions. In fact it’s rapidly becoming the latest religion. Sadly, such a sneering attitude is all too common. We owe it to ourselves and future generations to minimise the negative impact our presence has on the planet regardless of whether An Inconvenient Truth or The Great Global Warming Swindle is right. Or even if they’re both wrong.

This week saw a stunning conference in the Waterloo IMAX theatre. Over three hundred people turned up for the Essential Cleantech conference, run by private ventures research firm Library House, to listen to a succession of people who are already addressing climate change through their innovations and investments. And, where there’s investment, there’s money to be made. This is not ‘do-gooding’ just for the sake of it.

What became abundantly clear was that most of the speakers saw carbon offsets and government incentives as a bit of a side show to the main event which was about cutting carbon emissions and other planet-harming activities wherever possible.

This was supported through inventions such as the direct current electricity servers which could eliminate billions of power adapters quietly leaking heat, through normal roof tiles which generate electricity and heat water, to industrial scale analysis and reconfiguration of supply chains.

Now that public awareness is building, one day we are all going to be held to account, both as businesses and through our products. If what we do is self-evidently not sustainable and we’re not (as a last resort) offsetting the carbon emissions we are responsible for, then we are likely to be sidelined in favour of businesses that take this stuff seriously.

Trot over to the Carbon Trust for some sound advice on what you can do in your business and its supply chains. And, if you want to take things further, visit the Energy Saving Trust for information about what you can do in your home.

Of course, sustainability isn’t just about carbon, but it’s a darned good start.