greenwashing

New Yorker article reminds you why you hate it

Stacy Mitchell did a bang-up job earlier this week of explaining why Wal-Mart and other big-box stores could never actually be green. But if you need a more wide-ranging reminder of Wal-Mart’s deep and abiding loathsomeness, check out Jeffrey Goldberg’s article in the latest New Yorker: “Selling Wal-Mart: Can the company co-opt liberals?” If you’ve […]

Unintended or not, the consequences were predictable

It’s hard to imagine what politicians and corporate chiefs are intending to do by crafting a corn-based ethanol boom, beyond rigging public policy (and raiding the public purse) to generate huge private profits. But whatever their intentions, they’re methodically creating environmental and social disasters — while brazenly brandishing the “green” flag. Before I go on, […]

The impossibility of a green Wal-Mart

With its recent flurry of green initiatives, Wal-Mart has won the embrace of several prominent environmental groups. “If they do even half what they say they want to do, it will make a huge difference for the planet,” said Ashok Gupta of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Environmental Defense, meanwhile, has deemed Wal-Mart’s actions momentous […]

With big biz jumping on the green bandwagon, should activists cheer or jeer?

“The test of a first-rate intelligence,” F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” It’s time for greens to co-opt corporations. Photo: iStockphoto If so, then the growth of the green economy — embraced by corporations, […]

Tell us when green bursts from the screen

For the second time in two nights, I was innocently watching bad TV when a green theme popped up. A gal can’t get a break from her day job these days with so many producers rushing to prove their eco-cred. So how far-reaching is this trend? Figuring that out will either require me to watch […]

All these green initiatives, oy

Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott just announced a comprehensive new initiative called “Sustainability 360,” which will attempt to infuse environmental concern in every part of the company’s operations: “Sustainability 360 takes in our entire company – our customer base, our supplier base, our associates, the products on our shelves, the communities we serve,” said Scott. “And […]

Is greenwashing good for business?

In public talks about Aspen Skiing Company’s environmental programs, I used to describe our wind-powered Cirque chairlift. Renewable-energy purchases for that lift keep 30,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas, out of the air annually, I’d tell my audience. Furthermore, it was the first renewably powered lift in the country. My listeners would […]

Green advertising

The NYT reports that eco-themed advertising is growing ever-more-ubiquitous from big companies.

I know we're supposed to bitch and moan about greenwashing, but the way I see it, even if 50% of this is hype, a) 50% non-hype is better than nothing, and b) it speaks well to current cultural trends that companies feel the need to brag about their environmental consciousness. Environmentalism is once again coming out in the open as a mainstream value, after years of demonization and caricature.

When it comes to green products, who’s zoomin’ who?

“I don’t trust ‘natural.’ People are always dying of natural causes.”— Woman looking at food labels, in a Richard Guindon cartoon Roll playing games? Photo: Laura Cacho. Shoppers of the world, I have just one question: Are you an eco-chump? Lots of us try to shop green. We buy unbleached paper towels and recycled products, […]