When I was growing up in the 1940s spring cleaning was an annual event. Housewives prepared for spring cleaning with military precision. Because Monday was wash day, housewives usually started their spring cleaning on that day. But spring cleaning could last days or even weeks.

My mother took down all of the curtains in our house and washed them by hand or in the washing machine. I thought the washing machine was a metal beast, and actually, it could be dangerous. One day I heard my mother call me from the basement. Though her voice sounded calm, I sensed an urgency in it, and ran down the basement stairs.

My mother’s hand and upper arm were caught between two rubber rollers. This wringer mechanism squeezed excess misture from clothes and you had to “feed” the clothes into the wringer one by one. Fortunately, I was able to reverse the rollers quickly and my mother wasn’t injuired.

Although the issue of sustainable business has been around on a large scale for over a decade, it seems we really just started seeing results during the past few years.

This spike in “eco” could have been caused by the approval of new grants for environmental companies, tax write-offs by the government, or even the creation of prizes from hopeful billionaires like Richard Branson. Perhaps those reasons started the fire, but in order to spread, many more reasons need to be evaluated.

What are the are the main reasons that corporate America is going green?

Money.

(Gasp!) That’s right. The same reason that businesses get involved with new ventures in the first place is the first reason businesses are going green. Going green can save businesses money (on electricity and utilities) and help them make money (great publicity).