I recently came across a blog post written by Sarah Ewing of ShoreBank that posed the question, What Does “Green” Mean to You? The post addresses the fact that how people define “green” can vary considerably. As Sarah writes, “A quick poll of attendees at ShoreBank’s Green Festival Chicago booth revealed that the word ‘green’ in the environmental context has no single definition. No wonder why there is such a debate over what is the best and most authentic way to ‘go green!’”
After reading the blog, I thought I would ask the readers of The Red Shirt Blog a similar question. What does it mean to be “green”?
Is a t-shirt “green” if the cotton was grown organically in India, the fabric was knitted in China, the garment was cut and sewn in Indonesia, the t-shirt was dyed using chemical dyes in North Carolina, and it was eventually purchased by a customer in California?
Is a bottle of water “green” if it is packaged in a bottle that uses 30% less plastic than competitors? Or is it “green” if the water comes from an exotic location and the company offsets the carbon emissions required to ship it to the United States?
Is laundry detergent “green” if it is concentrated thus using less packaging and requiring less energy to transport, but it is still a petroleum-based product?
Is a luxury sedan “green” if it gets 23 mpg, 3 more mpg than the non-hybrid version?
Of course, I have an opinion. However, I want to hear what others have to say first. In your opinion, what does it mean to be “green”? Would you consider any of the above products “green”? Can there be an absolute definition of “green” or is it more of a continuum? I would love any and all opinions.
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From an individual perspective, going “green” to me is doing whatever is within your power to reduce your negative impact on the environment. If you can produce less waste, use less water, reuse more of your materials, get more of your food from local sources, then you are “going green.”
If you want to talk about what it means to be green, then yeah, you’d need a more concrete definition.
Everybody (both people and corporations) can make an effort to improve their own impacts. Some may have more success than others, but that doesn’t mean an attempt shouldn’t be made.
I think ‘being green’ is about being responsible and being authentic in your journey to being more responsible. As Blaine said, for individuals it means genuinely working to incrementally reduce your negative impact on the environment and improving the health and wellness of ‘your world’. For corporations it’s quite similar; taking deliberate steps to reduce your impact and work with your trading partners to help them do so. For some this means simply taking the time to recycle, for others who are further along it means composting, for others it means thinking about how you can actually be a nourishing factor to the environment. I think ‘being green’ is about being honest with yourself and making genuine strides to improve. For corporations it’s all about transparency. Without transparency you rob consumers of the ability to make conscious decisions about what they consume. Without transparency you also rob yourself of valuable assets who may help shine a light on how you can create positive change in your company and our world.
My two cents after having a few beers while watching the Celtics