Noah (thanks NB) forwarded a stirring article from The Guardian (how does he find this stuff?) about how green is becoming a new status symbol propelled by eco-baloney. The author’s premise is that few people are willing to make the sacrifices required for real eco-progress and that most green products are simply giving the rich a new way of flaunting their success:
Green consumerism is becoming a pox on the planet. If it merely swapped the damaging goods we buy for less damaging ones, I would champion it. But two parallel markets are developing – one for unethical products and one for ethical products, and the expansion of the second does little to hinder the growth of the first. I am now drowning in a tide of ecojunk.
The author goes on to make a lot of really smart observations and I tend to agree with him that most of the so called green products, including many I write about on this blog will hardly dent the global warming challenge. For example, the GE green card I wrote about yesterday is more of status symbol than a genuine instrument of change. That said, I disagree with the author on a couple of critical issues.
In any marketing campaign, the first step is generally building awareness for that particular product or service. All of the ecojunk, as the Guardian reporter calls it, while not necessarily doing good in and of itself, adds to the green buzz, keeping environmental concerns top-of-mind, reminding us all that we can make a difference as individuals. This level of noise is required to achieve real change, sacrifice or otherwise. Everyday people are confronted with simple eco-choices like putting soda cans in the recycling bin or just tossing them into the garbage, or using the store’s plastic bags when you could reuse your own cloth bag. Usually it takes a little more planning, a little more effort, to make the greener choice, AND all the green noise provides the constant reminder needed to propel most people to make the extra effort.
Secondly, I’m not sure that asking people to make real sacrifices is the only way to achieve dramatic change. Admittedly, my view on this may be completely naive but frankly, I’m not interested in living like No Impact Man and I think few people are. Real change will occur as the result of AND not OR. When hybrids cost the same as regular cars, the result will be better transportation AND better fuel economy/less emissions. When compact fluorescent bulb prices dropped, the result was better lights AND energy savings. Competitive advantage will be gained by those truly green products that offer the same price/performance AND less environmental impact. All of the ecojunk is simply paving the way for real ecochange. I, for one, am not giving up on the market.