(a "recycled" post from a blog I kept once upon a time... thought you might like to read it)
Saving the earth is a noble and necessary task. Marketing and media have taken the phrase “being green” to a whole new (rather sickening) level. Working in the design industry means I am subjected to these sometimes terrible marketing ploys as every manufacturer of paint, carpet, fabric, bricks, concrete, windows, sheet flooring, and ceiling tiles (etc) screams at me to see how sustainable they are!! How many LEED points their company can contribute (note: unless they are mechanical manufacturers, the odds of their company alone earning you LEED points is a fairy tale. Period.) This morning a paint manufacturer sent my firm a brochure that proudly displayed their newest color: EcoFriendly.
Can someone tell me what color EcoFriendly is? Green as in grass? Brown as in (poop) compost? Seriously. The best part was that their pretty, brightly colored brochure was not printed on recycled paper, non soy-based inks, and had a ridiculous amount of packaging. Sounds pretty EcoFriendly to me. Not.
Actually, since you’re dying to know… EcoFriendly is white. Yes. They take old base paint and mix it together to make a “new” paint… it technically contributes to using recycled materials, but because it’s an old paint, it lets off toxic fumes after you paint with it, which is detrimental to the whole “green” process – a big part of sustainable interiors is indoor air quality – because the average interior air is full of chemicals, vapors, and stale(air conditioned) air and can actually make you sick!
In some ways sustainable living is really not that difficult. It is not hard to rinse out milk jugs, to put things in the recycling bin, to walk and bike more, to use your own bags at the store, etc. The problem is that it is not convenient. It doesn’t take that much effort to walk two steps farther to the recycle bin, but it IS two steps. And for some people, that is enough to make them toss it in the trash. I do this occasionally as well.
But after a year of living with my good friends, I am the Green Nazi. I have planted a small herb garden (and harangue my roommates to water them when I am gone), and am the one in charge of rinsing out the smelly milk jugs that got tossed in, getting rid of the yogurt containers and removing the drink caps (non-recyclable plastic, sorry. Same goes with Styrofoam.) it never takes me more than 5 minutes, and I get a sort of self-righteous pleasure from it, it’s true.
I dunno, there’s just something enormously satisfying about fitting groceries for five hungry girls into 7 reusable/cloth bags as compared to 30 or so plastic ones. I grew up “green”. My family had a huge garden, as well as a berry patch, apple and apricot trees. We shopped at Aldi’s with reusable bags. We biked to the library and to the park. We composted. All these things that are such a big deal now were just a way of life, mostly because it was cheaper. So... it’s ingrained into my being.
The bottom line is that the US is finally going to be forced to adapt the way the rest of the world has, in terms of being careful with resources. We were big enough to ignore it for a long time, but now it’s just a change. Riding the bus (improving the public transportation.. don’t get me started!), ride sharing, growing and saving and conserving…
It’s not hard. Really. Everyone else has been doing it for hundreds of years. Hell, hundreds of years ago, AMERICA was doing it! Whether you embrace it or get dragged kicking and screaming, green is here to stay.
Saving the earth is a noble and necessary task. Marketing and media have taken the phrase “being green” to a whole new (rather sickening) level. Working in the design industry means I am subjected to these sometimes terrible marketing ploys as every manufacturer of paint, carpet, fabric, bricks, concrete, windows, sheet flooring, and ceiling tiles (etc) screams at me to see how sustainable they are!! How many LEED points their company can contribute (note: unless they are mechanical manufacturers, the odds of their company alone earning you LEED points is a fairy tale. Period.) This morning a paint manufacturer sent my firm a brochure that proudly displayed their newest color: EcoFriendly.
Can someone tell me what color EcoFriendly is? Green as in grass? Brown as in (poop) compost? Seriously. The best part was that their pretty, brightly colored brochure was not printed on recycled paper, non soy-based inks, and had a ridiculous amount of packaging. Sounds pretty EcoFriendly to me. Not.
Actually, since you’re dying to know… EcoFriendly is white. Yes. They take old base paint and mix it together to make a “new” paint… it technically contributes to using recycled materials, but because it’s an old paint, it lets off toxic fumes after you paint with it, which is detrimental to the whole “green” process – a big part of sustainable interiors is indoor air quality – because the average interior air is full of chemicals, vapors, and stale(air conditioned) air and can actually make you sick!
In some ways sustainable living is really not that difficult. It is not hard to rinse out milk jugs, to put things in the recycling bin, to walk and bike more, to use your own bags at the store, etc. The problem is that it is not convenient. It doesn’t take that much effort to walk two steps farther to the recycle bin, but it IS two steps. And for some people, that is enough to make them toss it in the trash. I do this occasionally as well.
But after a year of living with my good friends, I am the Green Nazi. I have planted a small herb garden (and harangue my roommates to water them when I am gone), and am the one in charge of rinsing out the smelly milk jugs that got tossed in, getting rid of the yogurt containers and removing the drink caps (non-recyclable plastic, sorry. Same goes with Styrofoam.) it never takes me more than 5 minutes, and I get a sort of self-righteous pleasure from it, it’s true.
I dunno, there’s just something enormously satisfying about fitting groceries for five hungry girls into 7 reusable/cloth bags as compared to 30 or so plastic ones. I grew up “green”. My family had a huge garden, as well as a berry patch, apple and apricot trees. We shopped at Aldi’s with reusable bags. We biked to the library and to the park. We composted. All these things that are such a big deal now were just a way of life, mostly because it was cheaper. So... it’s ingrained into my being.
The bottom line is that the US is finally going to be forced to adapt the way the rest of the world has, in terms of being careful with resources. We were big enough to ignore it for a long time, but now it’s just a change. Riding the bus (improving the public transportation.. don’t get me started!), ride sharing, growing and saving and conserving…
It’s not hard. Really. Everyone else has been doing it for hundreds of years. Hell, hundreds of years ago, AMERICA was doing it! Whether you embrace it or get dragged kicking and screaming, green is here to stay.