merchimerch | (no subject)

Entry tags:

green

(no subject)

Here's an interesting article from the Seattle Times on Eco-Chic and "Greenwashing." It's a good read, but I wish he'd been more specific about what exactly the "6 sins of greenwashing" are.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008022511_greenmarketing28m.html

ETA: In a side bar they had some URLs with rankings and information that are helpful:
http://www.ewg.org/featured/16

http://www.greenwashingindex.com/

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, this is becoming a bigger problem.

At the Greenfair here in San Jose a few weeks ago, I saw a number of companies pushing "eco" solutions that seemed to be nothing more than greenwashing.

For example, "green" bottled water. The water that comes out of the tap is more regulated, more tested, than any water you might buy in a bottle. When you add to that the environmental costs of plastic bottles, and the transportation involved, it just doesn't seem like a good idea.

urgh bottled water. One of my biggest bugbears of modern life.

I believe that drinking tap water is my political and moral duty. Because, frankly, if well-to-do, vocal people who are fluent with the language of powerful institutions stop drinking tap water, then there will be less pressure to keep it well regulated. I am worried that in a decade or two we will be seeing giardia and typhus and other beasties in American drinking water, because everyone whose voice gets heard drinks from a bottle.

Bottlemania is on my shelf and on my to-read list. Have you read it?

Nope - never heard of it.

We have free sodas and bottled water in our breakrooms at work. I and several others have been pushing for a removal of the bottled water for a few years now, and it looks like they'll be doing that soon. There are a couple of "test" breakrooms around the company campus now where you can get filtered tap water, and employees are encouraged to bring their own container. As the trial progresses, they'll work to get rid of the bottles.

It's a small step...

http://product.half.ebay.com/_W0QQprZ63478427QQcpidZ1382477409

Bottlemania is supposed to be a good one.

And wow - free soda. Do you get a free gym membership to help counteract the chemicals, carbonation, and HFCS? < /snark >

I'm guessing the morale boost is more important to your company that either the environmental or health impacts of stocking those things. (but great if you can encourage even small changes)

Actually, the gym membership *is* free :)

When Cisco was a husband-and-wife startup in a Palo Alto home, employees were provided free drinks and popcorn while they worked all hours - that became part of the corporate culture/perks as the company grew up. To this day, we all have free popcorn, sodas, and (now) gym memberships.

The biggest area we can impact (CO2-wise) is in our products: driving efficiency and non-toxic materials into these boxes we sell around the world will lessen substantially our company footprint.

I used to work for the head guy behind Cisco's "green" effort, and I believe they want to really do the right thing. Whenever they do anything that might come off as "greenwash," I'm very vocal about it, and they make changes well before it ever sees the public "light of day."

We announced some green goals, and I think we're serious about doing something about meeting them:

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0409863.htm

For whatever it's worth, I try and put BioDiesel into our vehicle when it's available. I've also been researching hydrogen fuel cells and other 'green' energy sources for our disaster deployments.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only