Sustainable Voices

Greenwash

2:12 PM, 11/10/2007 .. 0 comments .. Link

I work for local government and wanted to share with you all an insiders perspective on how the word 'sustainability' can be abused and used in absurd ways.

The first example is of an electronic kiosk which was installed at a local library.

The intention was that this kiosk would allow residents to access information and council and participate in local decision making through the completion of electronic surveys. The accompanying press release claimed that this kiosk was also a great step forward for sustainability cause it would reduce the use of paper.

It shits me off that most residents would take this at face value (after all why would local government give inaccurrate information)? How many would question how a computer that is always on during business hours and built out of non-recyclables could be be more sustainable than a paper survey (which at least can be recycled) or by participating in local decision making by raising your hand or writing a letter?

A second example.
The upper level of management recently brought some new cars for their own private use. Shortly thereafter our in-house newsletter featured an article on the cars claiming that the management team was 'leading by example' in regards to sustainability.

The article reported that these cars get a 'fantastic' 9.6 litres/100km. What the article failed to mention was that the average efficiency for cars in the same category is about 10 litres/100km. A 0.4 increase in efficiency! Hooray the planet is saved Angry

.

What the article also failed to mention is that there are vehicles out there (such as the smart car) which burn up only 5 litres/100km, but I guess these vehicles aren't an acceptable reflection of the esteem that comes with a management position.

Due to my increasing frustrations I decided to develop a simple test for 'Greenwash'.

Simply say 'If only we had enough <insert supposedly sustainable thing here> then the planet will be ok <insert theatrical sigh of relief here>'.

So in the first example I would say 'if only we had enough electronic kiosks then we would be sustainable' Sounds pretty stupid eh? So if it sounds stupid it probably is stupid.
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