"A Deeper Shade of Green"

Hey, I'm published!

If you're interested, a couple months ago I penned a piece for an excellent new magazine here in the Upper Mississippi Valley region called Natural Communities, which is devoted to chronicling what I've taken to refering to as the emerging "culture of responsibility". The article is entitled "A Deeper Shade of Green", and it argues that just as the term "Organic" was co-opted by big-business, so "Green" is going to be as well. But that's alright, because just as true organic food buyers have deepened their understanding and become more informed and discerning about what makes food healthy, so too will those who wish to create healthy, responsible homes.

Or to put it another way, nobody really goes to Wal-Mart to buy healthy food, and nobody goes to Home Depot to buy truly "green" building materials either. They go there for "cheap". And this newly emerging culture of responsibility is by it's nature inherently incompatible with our dying culture of "quantity and consumption". Yes, I'll grant you it doesn't always seem that way, but it is.

"The green building revolution will pursue a practical course, which starts by re-examining the existing materials in our homes and workplaces and asking ourselves whether they might actually be harming us. Then, over time, we should replace these things when feasible, and explore ways to seal their toxins in when it’s not.

As a good rule of thumb though, just as with the organic foods movement, we should probably maintain a healthy distrust for any solutions we’ll be offered by the very corporations and industries that put us into this mess in the first place."

Of course don't get me wrong--the Big Box stores will still do huge business catering to the majority of people, since the majority of people--by their very nature--don't really give a shit. I mean why do you think Wal-Mart even bothered to go "Organic®" in the first place? Because they know that when push comes to shove, most people prefer a comforting lie to actually making any real effort to do the right thing.

Comments

[Larry]

CONGRATS...

[auntiegrav]

Unfortunately, the 'Green' movement should be renamed the "Government Grant Greedy Green" movement. There are so many organizations that bombard us with their pleas for saving something or other, sustaining something or other, or just 'creating a new world' that I can't see the porpoise for the Purpose. I read a recent article somewhere where a 'Green' writer was elated that they had collected hundreds of thousands of business cards from organizations claiming to 'help' our future. The writer thought this was a good sign of some kind of 'movement'. I think it's just more people trying to find their own piece of a System to pay them a salary for their good intentions; forgetting that the money to pay that salary is skimmed off the cashflow spewing out of the Earth in the name of Progress.
"Any true environmentalist would commit suicide." -unknown source (to me)

[PeakEngineer]

Insightful article. Wal-Mart and others provide an example of people failing to take responsibility for their own health and pollution -- and relying on others to provide the "solutions".

[Rob Waldron]

"It's a two-year old start-up company which serves as a dealer/retailer of "green" building supplies and products, chiefly Safecoat's leading-brand non-toxic paints and cleaning products, that newly hip recycled cotton "blue-jean" insulation, a great recycled roofing-shingles product, and a range of renewable and organic flooring materials. Plus we can also offer a full line of solar equipment through an affiliation with AEE Solar in California. The former owners were extremely conscientious people, so everything we sell is as green as possible (not just greenwashed) and as locally produced as possible." Deconsumption Newsletter November 2006

So, Steven, you must be an authority on green building now.
I'm not trying to make a snide comment, but to illustrate your very point. I'm building my own house right now and it seems that fully one half of the materials are promoted as being recycled, sustainable, environmentally conscious, etc.
I have now switched over to the dark side. Because I want the house to last for many generations, I find myself wanting more Korean steel, Simpson connectors, rebar, concrete and treated Southern Yellow Pine. If a house can last for more than a hundred years, then my children will not have to live with the negative effects of disposing of it and replacing it. It is 'greener' to build longer lasting homes, automobiles, etc. Don't fall for 'green' materials that last for only a few years.

[Steven Lagavulin]

Rob,

That touches on the whole question of "What is Green?", which is surprisingly difficult to answer in a specific way. So like I referred to in the title of the piece, there are so many "shades" of green that it becomes more of a question about how deeply green do I really choose to go?

(Although certainly there's a true dark side to green as well--the whole issue of green-washing irresponsible existing products by hyping some vaguely, peripherally "green" feature.)

Personally I agree with you--if you can build a home that will last 500 years or so, wouldn't that be greener that building 10 homes that last 50 years? Which is the philosophy behind Earth-Sheltered building, for example, where you construct the entire home from concrete, insulate it from the outdoor environment with earth, and you end up with a home that will last hundreds of years with astoundingly little ongoing maintenance or expenses.

But then other--equally "green"--advocates say that it's irresponsible to use that much concrete, that it's better to build with straw-bale, cob, cord-wood, rammed-earth, timber frame, etc. and then build those 10 homes from materials that will renew themselves completely before each 50 year period is up.

And then from a whole 'nother perspective, even these choices only fall under the sub-heading of Alternative Building, which is but one small aspect of Green building. As I mentioned, the great majority of people are never going to embrace "alternative" buildings. They want to build "normal" homes, just the way they've always known them. So then that's where green building suppliers and retailers like myself come in: providing healthier and more responsible versions of "normal" building materials to offset all the extremely abnormal materials that have devolved over the decades as corporations explore ever more inventive ways for making things as cheaply as possible.

[gasparin]

It sounds like a somewhat pointless argument since there is no 'Green' certification process to corrupt (as agri-businesses are trying to do with the USDA organic standards).

In fact, 'Green' was co-opted long before there was even a federal standard or any sort of certification for 'Organic'... so 'Green' isn't going to be co-opted like 'Organic'.

'Green' is already a virtually meaningless marketing device, much like 'Natural'... and it's been that way for such a long time that we already have handy pejoratives in the lexicon to denote an entirely superficial ecological-consciousness, like 'Greenwash'.

[gasparin]

And I also wanted to say...

I think your conclusion that people can't just be 'mindless consumers' is about the best conclusion that can be drawn.

Congratulations on being published. ;-)

[Luis]

Great post!

If the economics don't work, recycling efforts won't either.
As our little contribution to make this economics of recycling more appealing,http://LivePaths.com blogs about people and companies that make money selling recycled or reused items, provide green services or help us reduce our dependency on non renewable resources.

[Dagny]

One thing to think about when building a new home is incorporating recycled barn wood. Not only are you recycling materials, but stand up against time. As you say, people's understanding is growing and concerned consumers will make the choices that genuinely protect the environment.

Dagny
www.onnotextiles.com
organic apparel

[Dagny]

One thing to think about when building a new home is incorporating recycled barn wood. Not only are you recycling materials, but stand up against time. As you say, people's understanding is growing and concerned consumers will make the choices that genuinely protect the environment.

Dagny
www.onnotextiles.com
organic apparel