I just visited the "Build It Green" expo in Phoenix today as an esteemed friend and associate had a booth at the venue. He has an eco-repsonsible home improvement store with an architectural division attached to it. He also offers LEED certification classes among others for professionals and non-professional alike in various best practices. While speaking with him, he mentioned sadly how much greenwashing was going on with many of the exhibitors. His was a tone that was lamentable but not bitter.
I noted this ruefully as lately I have read so many blogs and comments on this site that are scathing about green businesses and the Green Movement at large. Statements ranging from "...the Green Movement is a plot by our enemies, known and unknown, to destroy the economy of the United States" to "...green businesses are only interested in green of another sort.." But these declarations were angry, quite absolute and the volume of them was staggering to me. And it made me wonder how individuals who have not ventured into the personal up close economics of greeness could be so sarcastic and furious. What have they ventured and lost? Please don't tell me their innocence.
My friend, has a post graduate degree and could make a very fine living not being attached to anything related to greeness if he chose. Yes, he makes quite a bit less money but it is a choice due to his convictions. I have three companies and while two of them are eco-responsible one is all about luxury, quarried materials and mostly catering to the excesses of wealth. Yes, that is my confession in True Confessions of an Eco-Entrepreneur... For the first 7 years of one of my green companies, my accountant asked why I continue on at this appalling rate. But let's stay on track about the dissatisfaction with all things green by individuals who have not staked any claim financially or otherwise in this realm.
The reality is - for small business that are truly ecologically green, their revenue is smaller that the mainstream companies that are doing the exact same tasks. I know this. I don't just think I do. The large companies that are slapping on green labels that they don't want you to read too closely, they are making the lions share of dubious green profits. These are the same companies that perhaps, these angry detractors are quite loyal to. The giants, - Clorox, Unilever, & Johnson, yes, what we all used to know as the S & P 100, they are the ones that are duping the public en masse. Is that shade of green OK because the company has framed itself permanently as a traditional enterprise?
By the way, the answer to my accountant regarding that question about constantly subsidizing a fledgling company was this: the strength and longevity of your personal convictions lies within you and radiates outwardly - not the other way around. I now feel the sharpness of that double edged sword.
Michelle Viggiano Phoenix & Scottsdale Four Winds Healthy Home Carpet and Air Duct Cleaning www.healthyhomeaz.com
Thanks for sharing the above quote. It is good advice . Good post.
Hi Gita, the quote is magic. When enacted, the intelligence, soulfulness and practical wisdom of the person responsible for the words is revisited by us all. In our busy world, it often appears that the cursing method is far more obtainable and eerily more satisfactory for many.
Wow, what a wonderful heartfelt post. Thanks so much for sharing. I love the quote at the bottom
Thank you for your kind words, Merris. You know you really made me laugh, as I remember it as if it were yesterday, when I said those same words (at the bottoam) to my accountant. I had many years to come up with that line, because he aksed me the question anunally. And when I finally said it to him, he just rolled his dignified eyes... but he is still my accountant and a valued colleague. Thanks again, Michelle
Michelle, sometimes I wonder, where these people get their negative ideas, then I remember there is Fox news and Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, all nay sayers. Then I wonder, don't these people have children they would like to see grow up in a clean environment? Apparently not. I posted a blog a week or so ago here about buying socially conscious products and how the big corporate polluters have hi-jacked some of those businesses by buying them up. It seems corporate America is trying to cash in on the "green" movement, while the consumer is unaware that Burt, for example, no longer owns Burt's Bees. I try to put my money where my mouth is so when I find a product is being produced by a ginormous polluter like Clorox, I don't buy.
You are right Terry, Corporate America is trying to un-green America by pulling a green tinted veil over everyone's eyes. Last year I blogged an entry "The Green Shame - The High Margin of Deceit" during the research for that entry I found a study by Terra Choice that stated the following - " 5% of all green claims were true". Shameful, and of course it was not the small green business person where the deceit was rampant. It was with the giants of the commercial industry. Tom of Tom's of Main toothpaste fame was the first to sell out to a big fortune 500 company and he ironically paved the way ~ the beginning and the end.
Oh yeah Michelle, I love that Clorox of all people now have a "green" line of cleaning products. I'm not sure if its true or just a marketing gimmick. At any rate I won't buy anything they make, because not only do they make polluting products, their manufacturing methods are anti-environment, as are probably most of the corporate manufacturers.
Hi Terry, great to hear from you. When this murky green offering from them came out, I checked their Material Safety Data Sheets on all the products in this so called green Clorox line. Simply put, there is less of a percentage of the offending chemical content, but far from being even close to a truly health conscious, earth friendly, green or entirely safe product. Marginal effort from a giant of the industry that certainly has the financial means, the technology in place and the loyal following to create an exquisitely green, eco-responsible product if they chose to. More simply put, they just don't care to.
But what about the quote from one of the individuals I quoted about that "the Green Movement is a plot by our enemies, known and unknown to destroy the economy of the United States" Everyone I have ever said that to is always waiting for the punch line - I wish there were one, It would make the comment more tolerable.