Too Much Green?

What started out as a grass-roots movement has become so universal that its size is threatening its cause.

The objective: become more environmentally friendly. The danger: the term "environmentally friendly" has become so watered down that a product or initiative stamped with anything even alluding to that phrase – a leaf, the color green, the word green – is now mindlessly accepted by the majority of consumers. The once heartfelt movement to change the way people think about their effect on the environment has turned into yet another fad.

We’re beginning to catch up with the overnight hype of "green living." Produce must meet certain standards in order to be labeled organic, laws are limiting the use of plastic bags, and many local governments readily provide recycle and compost receptacles for their residents. But overall, most people take part in all of this because it’s a trend, not because they are consciously committed to helping the environment. I smell trouble when a thought no longer precedes an action.

Two examples prove my point.

The first is an online ad I noticed while checking my email. The basic message was "use our product, save green," with the word "green" emphasized by size and color, and the entire message appearing on a backdrop of a green, leaf-like pattern. At first glance I quite honestly assumed this ad was promoting an environmentally friendly product. Of course, once I read the content I realized that apparently the only green I’d be saving was money. I was half-way impressed at the clever trickery, but also quite disturbed that the color green splashed on an ad can now single-handedly trigger the purchasing process by appropriately or inappropriately labeling a product environmentally friendly.

Second example: my coworker feels guilty using plastic bags at stores so now tries to always bring re-usable bags with her. Great goal, except that every time she forgets her bag she buys another "re-usable" one instead of opting for plastic. But by always buying another bag – thicker and more material-depleting than a thin one-time use bag – she’s consuming more than necessary, which is obviously in contradiction to her goal of consuming less. She is choosing to defer to the options that a few big retailers have put in place to assure us all that our consumerism is socially responsible, and yet she’s gaining no ground in reducing her own carbon footprint.

If we all examined our own habits we could each easily find 5 or 10 ways to live a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle. Those 5 or 10 changes that you could make will most likely have nothing to do with buying things, and they also may – gasp! – differ from those of your neighbors and friends. We all live different lives, so we should all make different choices in order to be more environmentally conscious on a global scale.

Composting food waste could be the single-most effective way for me to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, while perhaps carpooling to work would be the best way for my neighbor to contribute, and my sister may do her part by supporting local and responsibly-grown agriculture. The only way to find out is to think about it.

Green is a great symbol, but it doesn’t compare to what that grey matter inside our skulls can do.