Posts Tagged ‘Pareto Principle’

Yesterday I asked if there were places were we could apply the 80/20 rule to benefit the environment. I indicated that the were and that I would share some of them today.

Just to clarify, we are looking for places were we can put forth 20% of the total effort for complete “green living” and achieve 80% of the benefits. If we can do that, then we will not only be well on our way to living in a more environmentally friendly manner, but we will also be doing it in a way that we are most likely able to sustain.

Here are some areas that take little effort, but could have a big effect on our impact on the environment.

Telecommuting, car pooling, consolidating trips, walking, biking, and public transportation

Weather stripping, insulating, and applying plastic film to our windows

Decreasing our thermostats a few degrees and wearing seasonal appropriate clothing

Recycling, reducing, and reusing

Composing

All of these ideas take little effort - just a change in our lifestyle. Yet if we all started to apply them, the benefits to the environment would be huge.

Pareto was an economist who recognized a pattern. He observed that in most things we have an impact on, there is an 80% to 20% ratio.

Often referred to as the 80/20 rule, Pareto said that usually about 20% of the work we do accomplishes about 80% of the results.

An example might be sales people in an organization. They usually find that about 20% of their customers will supply about 80% of their sales.

The silly thing that we tend to do is focus harder on the other 80% of the people that bring in only 20% of the sales. What we should be doing is focusing on other customers who are as much like the 20% as possible.

The interesting thing about the 80/20 rule is that it is applicable in so many different areas. That includes green living.

Can the 80/20 rule be applied to environmental initiatives? Absolutely – and I’ll show you some in my upcoming posts.