So You Compost, Drive a Hybrid, Wear Recycled Boots and Eat a Lot of Hummus, But Are You Green Enough?
This is a guest post by Aaron Szymanski, President of Evo Design, an award-winning industrial design firm housed in a refurbished water treatment plant in Watertown, CT.
The good thing about the economy sucking cheese right now is that it’s given me some free time to catch up on my reading. I moderate a discussion forum called “The Green Room” and while catching up on what people are sniping about I came across an interesting thread that included many questions.
The primary question being, What are we really supposed to do to be more green? My contribution to the group was that I believed people wanted to do the right thing but that it was truly unclear to them exactly what is better.
For example, after reading E the Environmental magazine’s recent issue, I felt ultimately that we should all be vegetarians. I’m not a die-hard meat lover but I’ve read enough credible writing that lead me to believe that it’s impossible for the earth to produce enough veggies to do this. Meanwhile, pondering the question, I still eat Slim Jims and summer sausage.
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All of this is discouraging and a little embarrassing because I feel, as a moderator, that I’m supposed to be able to answer these simple questions, at the very least, for myself. Not because they’re particularly profound complex questions but because they’re completely the opposite. These are ordinary, everyday, basic sustainability questions like:
• Why don’t we recycle paper towels?
• What is better for the planet: high octane or low octane?
• French press or automatic drip?
• Would it be more sustainable if I just ate vitamins and no food?
• Does taking compostable materials out of the landfill really help? Don’t they aid in the decomposition of more difficult materials?
• What really happens to the economy if we all “reduce” and, for example, live with just one pair of shoes per person?
• If we are serious about sustainability why don’t we immediately stop recreational fuel consumption, like NASCAR and Indy racing?
• Isn’t working out a huge waste of energy in that you are consuming calories that you then have to “work-out”?
• How can the 2008 Olympics call itself green with all of the airfare required to bring athletes together? Can’t they compete virtually in every individual sport?
Then I started thinking about my own questions, applying them to my own life. Maybe I should cancel my trip to the Grand Canyon this summer with my eight-year old to save the jet fuel. And while I’m at it, I’ll cancel the order for the new conference table chairs for the office. I’m sure there’s a National Geographic DVD on the Grand Canyon whose purchase would create a way smaller carbon footprint than driving or flying for a visit.
And, the 10 year old Umbra chairs we have now aren’t broken, they just make my ass fall asleep when I sit in them for too long. So maybe for the benefit of all I should just keep the chairs and get up every 15 minutes and walk around the room. Or maybe we could just all wheel our own office chairs into the conference room when we have a meeting. Would my clients find that weird or inspiring?
As I reread what I wrote, I realize it sounds like I’m being a sarcastic tool but honestly, I am seriously and genuinely perplexed by these questions. Does the fact that I already compost, drive a hybrid, wear recycled boots and eat a lot of hummus mean I have done enough? Can I go ahead and take that drive to the Grand Canyon? Or would it be more sustainable if I took a plane? The plane is going there anyway and I am sure there are empty seats so how much fuel do my 68 pound son and I require? Or is that even the right question?
When I read all the other bloggers’ articles, listen to my peers’ discussions, and hear the presidential candidates debate, I feel like everyone else has the answers but me. Like my eight-year old, I want to be able to shrug my shoulders and say, “whatever”—but I can’t. Instead, I search for more wisdom.
I’m reading a somewhat caustic biography of Thomas Edison called: The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World. It’s really an enjoyable book that focuses on the idea that Edison’s primary lasting contribution was the creation of our celebrity icon culture, with him being among the first.
In the same way Edison’s inventions had people wondering about how his new products affected their everyday lives, we are asking similar questions today as to how being green shifts our vision and affects our day-to-day living. Many during his time spoke as though the path was so clear– only to have time show that they were totally wrong. For example, Ford convinced Edison to stop working on his fuel cell electric automobile because they were both so enamored by Ford’s transportation solution, the internal combustion engine. (At the time Edison’s electric prototype could go 70mph with a range of about 80 miles–this was in 1911).
Even so, Ford and Edison made what they thought to be the best decisions based on what they knew at the time, and that’s what I have to do to help untangle myself. In the day when it only takes a few seconds to Google our way to every “fact” it’s normal to think that every answer is out there waiting, as long as we have the proper search words. For now, because it’s all I can do, I’m going to try and search a little more thoroughly for the answers to my questions, but also start acting. Starting with canceling my trip and the order for my conference chairs.
If part of your goal is to teach your son about the earth that you are trying to save, you should take him to the Grand Canyon… and as many other natural wonders as you can! Yes, ther will be carbon involved, but that is the world we currently live in. If we want the next generation to value the beauty of our planet, they need to experience it for themselves. A video will not give hin the experience of walking out onto the sky bridge and seeing the awesomeness of it all.
If the carbon is that big of a deal to you, purchase carbon offsets to make up for it… but make sure that your son sees the reality of what we are trying to save… if he never sees it for himself, why should he care enough to take care of it?
I think this is an issue everyone is struggling with and along with the environmental implications there are also social implications. The more green you can appear or be certified the more hip and cool you are. We struggle with clients wanting everything to be green with an environmental “g” but what many discover is that the capital “G”, as in Mr. Green, money is never in the budget to achieve that ideal.
This is a product of being on the forefront of a new outlook and my hope is that eventually being green will really be about evaluating the actual need for ownership of “stuff”.
I look around my home, office, etc. and I realize I have so much stuff. I know George Carlin often spoke about how we all want “a place for our stuff.”, and I’m no different.
However I realize that if I take a step back there really isn’t all that much that I actually need to live a sustainable life.
I’ve tried to stop purchasing books and magazines and using the library or Internet as my main source of reading material. That can be tough when you like to read in the “home office” because I question if it’s really ethical to take a library book or magazine into bathroom for what can be some difficult colonic work outs.
That being said, I’ve thought about my food consumption. Am I eating because I feel like I have to eat or because I am actually hungry? Sometimes I find that I’m eating out of habit or socially and I’m not really satisfying a base need that I have to actually provide my body nutrients.
For me the concept comes down to my evaluating if I really need more “stuff” in my life. I’m fortunate because I have clothing, I have access to healthy foods, I have the ability to get to work, via car or public transportation when needed, so basically I don’t have any more stuff needs.
Everything I decide to purchase at this point is really due to something in that stuff category wearing out (ex. Pants ripped. OK for casual jeans, not yet deemed OK for meeting with clients or going to church, although I think Jesus would have worn ripped denim, but I don’t want to start a Dogma war on religious clothing issues).
To me being green is not about making a big statement to everyone that “I’m Green”, unless it’s green with envy which I could probably state daily. I think it’s more about taking buying and consumption decisions on a daily basis and evaluating if they really are necessary for me to live a lifestyle that is consistent with an ideal of not wanting too much “stuff”.
A larger issue though is that, while I can have my feeling on stuff, when in a family dynamic you can find that others (partner, children) don’t share your feelings and they feel you may need more stuff. Hence all the pillows you will have to wade through when you come over to our house. I personally need one good pillow, with one, preferably cotton pillow cover and I’m set for life. Not so for my family, as we are continually having pillows appear and seemingly multiply in the various rooms of our house. To me that’s not green. In fact most of them are burgundy and red, quite the opposite of green. However, all I can do is try and stick to using my one pillow, make a statement like “Damn how come we have so many damn pillows in this damn house?” and try and deter the purchase of more pillows.
Unless you make a ton of money off of somehow compromising resources of our planet, it is my true feeling that the majority of people want to conserve and be green. I think right now it’s hip and cool to tell everyone how green you are, but it can be a lot harder for me to decide not to buy that Starbucks coffee because I can make it at home in my reusable coffee filter and fill my cracked Xbox mug and not buy some container that I’m ultimately going to commit to a trash can. Does my coffee taste as good as Starbucks? No I’m a horrible coffee maker. Does it taste that much worse on a daily basis that I want so spend my economic resources in support of coffee that is probably overpriced. Some days I do and some days I don’t, but it’s a daily decision for me.
One pillow is better than five. Especially if it is one of these: http://www.totallyorganic.us/content.cfm?n=products&id=78
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