GreenPepper Blog

The Blue-Green Angels

By Matt Sloustcher, GreenPepper

Watching The Blue Angels soar over the San Francisco skyline this weekend was an amazing sight, one that I look forward to annually. This year, however, there was a new sound in the air. Since practice sessions began on Thursday, greenies have been grumbling about wasted jet fuel and the general environmental degradation caused by the event. I witnessed most of this online, but others mentioned it as we stood on my roof watching the sky. It should come as no surprise; in this new era of social responsibility, everything is being called out. There was tremendous fallout last week when the President and first lady took separate jets across the Atlantic to lobby on behalf of Chicago’s Olympic bid, for example.

On gut reaction alone, my feeling is that the tradition should live on. In addition to pure entertainment value, arguments can be made that the show boosts the Navy’s recruiting potential and inspires people to think about public service. But I wonder, shouldn’t the Navy use this opportunity to educate people on the efforts it is taking to clean up its act? For example, the Navy is pouring millions into researching alternative fuels and other forms of energy, but the Website makes no mention. If I had my way, the Navy would showcase its current efforts and make a pledge that they will work to make the event carbon neutral within a decade. That’s leadership.

Convenience and comfort before going green

It’s probably no huge surprise that while most of us like to talk the green talk, we’re a lot less likely to walk the walk if it’s inconvenient.  In fact, a study from the Shelton Group released this week found that when purchasing products, 38 percent of respondents would choose convenience, 35 percent would choose comfort, but only 26 percent would choose the environment when making a choice.

I’ve always been a strong believer that if you want people to go green and make environmentally sound decisions, you have to make it easy for them, and small steps should be rewarded and encouraged.  Green products need to be of equal quality to their non-green counterparts, or it’s just not going to work, and this survey shows that.

With this in mind, companies that are taking the steps to encourage greener behavior should be rewarded, not disparaged for not doing enough.  For example, Scott’s Naturals products only contain a portion of recycled paper material, a fact that has brought the ire of many environmentalists.  But if this keeps the TP softer and makes people more likely to buy the product, it’s a huge step up for someone who used to use triple-ply Quilted Northern, and a huge win for the environment.

Finding that sweet spot, in business and communication, where you pull at the environmental goodness heartstrings, while still selling a product that everyone can enjoy, is going to be critical if we’re going to make any real change for our planet.  It simply can’t be an all or nothing proposition.

Enough Packaging

By Ann Barlow, GreenPepper

This past weekend, I was at Safeway doing the usual biweekly (Triweekly?  Daily?) grocery shopping.  Cereal was on the list, so I picked up the usual Kellogg’s Smart Start for my husband, Bob.  I don’t like a lot of the mass-produced cereals, not so much because I prefer small, locally produced fare, but because I just prefer the taste. So I went to the ‘organic’ aisle to see if I could get some granola. At my local Safeway, the organics are relegated to their own section rather than being interspersed with the regular chips, yogurt, cereal, etc.  As if they could catch high-fructose corn syrup or trans fats if they came too close.

But I digress.  I bought a bag of granola, which had 12 oz. of cereal versus the 14 oz. box that Bob picked up.  The difference in the sizes of the packages, though, was laughable.  The granola bag was about a third the size of the Kellogg’s box.

That got me thinking.  The razors that I put in the shopping cart were so surrounded by plastic and cardboard that we would need an electric saw to open them.  The Oil of Olay night cream came in a box with two more plastic boxes inside, one above the jar and one below. The contact lens solution came in a large box and the spout was basically hermetically sealed against any tampering.

When, oh when, are we going to cut out this incredibly wasteful packaging, and who will lead the charge?  It’s absolutely unconscionable that we allow this to continue.

It probably won’t be the grocery store chains who call for change. Clearly they couldn’t care less, so long as the current packaging allows them to get as much as possible on the shelves and display them in the most convenient and attractive way.  And it probably won’t be the manufacturers either.  They’ll no doubt cite the Tylenol scare as reason to avoid eliminating anything that increase the public’s, and their own, risk.

But wouldn’t it be great if Johnson & Johnson, which became the de facto standard of safe packaging, led the way in creating new packaging that was less damaging to the environment?  And surely they have the kind of power necessary to convince grocery and drug stores to be more environmentally friendly, too when it comes to shelf-stocking?

Here’s hoping.  In the meantime, I’m going to start buying the less packaged stuff.  I hope you’ll do the same.

When Buying Green Isn’t Green

By Beth Starkin, GreenPepper

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Go Green Expo here in NYC.  It was a beautiful, sunny weekend, and I was excited at the opportunity to learn more about what eco-minded companies in the area are doing, and what products and services are available to me, the “green” consumer.  What I found was really nothing more than a glorified flea market.  Peddlers were pushing their wares, from biodegradable diapers to solar-powered turtle lamps (really??) to organic baby clothes to cruelty-free acne treatments.  It was overwhelming and an outstanding display of the excessiveness that is the antithesis of the green movement.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some great products and ideas on display at the event, and I even picked up a onesie and bib for my friend who’s about to have a baby any day now.  But giant flat-panel TV’s pulsing out product benefits and thousands of samples in plastic containers don’t quite strike me as the height of the green movement.  I was struck most when I walked past a man who was selling all natural totes for just one dollar.  When I pointed out the free tote I had already acquired from someone at some point during the day, his response was – “Well, that’s not natural fabric.”  So, what, I should just toss that puppy in the landfill because it’s not made of all natural products?  How is that green in the least?

I’m all for making conscious purchases and buying green when a purchase needs to be made.  But we all need to be carefully about mindlessly buying stuff just because someone says it’s green.  If you don’t really need it, it’s pretty likely that so-called green purchase is just going to be one more thing taking up space in a landfill pretty soon.