As I was writing the
cover story on greenwashing
for this issue, I received a media release publicizing a workshop for businesses
about how to incorporate green efforts and sustainable practices into their
brand and marketing strategies. My hope is that they also learn something a bit
more difficult – and that’s how to incorporate sustainability into their
everyday business practices.
The fact that there are increasing numbers of
businesses trying to present themselves as green when they’re not is, perhaps,
an inevitable growing pain in the move towards real sustainability. Yes, these
greenwashers are exploiting people’s honest desire to be responsible consumers
and environmental friendliness is often little more than the sales angle du
jour. But maybe there is something to celebrate in the fact that companies are
competing for customers based on their perceived greenness. Maybe we should see
it as both a sign of and a precursor to progress.
For instance, as Wal-Mart has publicized its new
energy efficient stores and added organic food and compact fluorescent light
bulbs to its offerings, it has continued to be an activist target. But whether
you believe the company to be honestly trying to change or just greenwashing its
sins in other areas, it has probably created the tipping point that will drive
Monsanto’s bovine growth hormone off the U.S. market. Recently, it announced
that its store brand of milk in the U.S. will come exclusively from cows not
treated with artificial growth hormones. And that was the day the ground
shifted, says Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association, because
Wal-Mart is the largest grocery retailer in the U.S. (Canada banned growth
hormones in milk in 1998.) Wal-Mart says it was only responding to consumer
demand. Of course, the skeptics will wonder if the company’s BGH-free claims can
be trusted.
Until we live in a perfectly green world, the
answer to this conundrum lies partly in balance and in understanding that
toxicity is a tricky issue and that ridding our lives of all toxins and
pollutants is almost impossible. A huge part of the solution is for governments
to create better standards and labeling regulations…and to enforce them.
Furthermore, as author and green business guru Joel Makower points out, we all
need to be as hard on ourselves as we are on the companies we criticize. In his
blog, Two Steps Forward, (makower.typepad.com), he writes, “While it’s good that
we maintain high standards for companies seeking to claim environmental
leadership, I can’t help but ponder the hypocrisy of it all: how much more we
expect of companies than of ourselves.”
When we drive hybrids or carpool to work, or
give up driving altogether; when we install solar panels on our roofs; when we
banish pesticides and cleaning chemicals from our homes; when we purchase only
locally produced goods; when we install energy-efficient light bulbs and
appliances, water-saving devices, insulation and weatherstripping; when we stop
assuaging our guilt for that cross-continent vacation by throwing some money at
a carbon offset company...then we will be doing what we are asking companies to
do.
Let’s all examine our own lives to be sure we
are doing all that we can to address environmental problems…without holding
others to a higher standard than we have set for ourselves.
Natural Life Editor
Wendy Priesnitz
Read Wendy Priesnitz's
blog
