A great article by David Roberts in Fast Company, October 2007 (a bit behind on my reading, thank you treadmill!) A lot of us, um, old players in the green space are all a bit perplexed as how to handle all the marketing ho-ha this past year or so. Many of us paid our dues back when green was not the new black. When green was more like geeky and …. earnest. (Earnest was NOT a good thing to be in the ’90′s!) Roberts writes:
Being both commercially ambitious and environmentally conscious once put you in an ostracized and lonely niche–the math club of our civic high school. Now things have gotten all…weird. Titans of commerce are eagerly trying to establish their green bona fides. This has the eco-business nerds somewhat discomfited. Every outsider knows that when the popular kids start making nice, it’s time to watch your back. There’s a wedgie coming. This is why every new green corporate initiative gets scrutinized so closely for its true intentions. When a CEO says, “We’ve figured out a way to make money by going green,” those who were green before green was cool are instinctively inclined to suspect deception. Is it green or greenwashing?
Roberts suggests that industry specific standards should be created.
It may strike some as uncomfortably close to activism