"Going Green"

Part of my job is handling all of the donation requests that walk in the door. Sometimes this can be really tough, and most of the time people don’t really seem to appreciate that no matter how great your cause, I just don’t have enough money to give something to everyone…the organizations that raise money for kids with cancer are particularly ruthless…

Anyways, I had a woman come in today to ask for my company’s support for her “Going Green” event. Her organization was putting together an event that brought together various vendors, organizations and other groups that offer “green” products, services or education opportunities. Her goal was to help people from her community find resources to reduce their carbon footprint.

This all sounded like the type of event that I love to support and is in line with my company’s mission. So I asked if there would be an opportunity for us to come out as and be represented as a vendor at the event.

WELL…my question was met with a cynical look and she sharply informed me that the event was mainly for vendors who are “GREEN” companies who have “GREEN” products…

Let me preface my response to her comment with this: I work a company who devotes a lot of time and money to making sure that their practices are environmentally sound. Our business deals directly with people who are passionate about the outdoors, and the company’s dedication to the environment is one of the things I love most about working for them. We are currently on track to be a Carbon Neutral and a Zero Waste-to-landfill company by 2020, we carry over 250 products that are produced under our own label that are ecoSensitive™ plus we carry a wide range of eco conscious products from other manufacturers. Last year alone my company funded and coordinated 785 Outdoor service projects generating over 1.5 million service hours for environmental conservation work. We annually generate 1.1 million kilowatts of clean energy to power our facilities just through roof top solar panels and the list could go on…

But, Rather than blasting this woman and her attitude out of the water I simply said:

“Oh. Well, [my company] is actually really proactive in environmental stewardship. We do a lot to be a “Green” company. In fact even in this store I am one of several people who bike to work, and I do all the store’s off site events by bike.”

To this she responded:

“OH! That’s great! Is that your Prius in the parking lot with the bike on the back?”

I almost laughed. But instead I gave her back a little bit of her attitude and simply said:

“No. I rode my BIKE here. I didn’t drive.”

She looked a little stunned and asked:

“You ride your bike in the cold?!?”

“Yes, and here is my card. Why don’t you send me information about the event and I will see what we can do.”

“Green” is the cool buzzword thrown around a lot these days. I get really annoyed with people who are so proud of their environmental contribution because they own a hybrid car, recycle their cans and glass and only buy “organic” vegetables. If the damage that we cause to the planet could be reversed by everyone driving a Prius, then environmentalists can pack up and go home. Don’t get me wrong, I think that hybrid cars are a good step in the right direction. I think that it is very important to recycle, and I think that there is a lot to be gained by moving our culture towards more locally grown produce that we can carry home in reusable shopping bags. But the attitude of “OH MY GOSH! YOU RIDE YOUR BIKE IN THE COLD!?” doesn’t sit well with me. If you really want to call yourself an environmentally responsible person, you’d better be ready to sacrifice some of the convenience and the comforts that our culture seems to think are God given rights. The suburb that this woman drove from to get to our store is about a quarter of the distance of my daily bike commute. You want to help people reduce their carbon footprint? Then tell them to get out of their cars, get on a bicycle, stop buying crap that you don’t need, start using less and re-using more and stop thinking that because you volunteer for an organization that prints their “Green” mission statement on partially recycled business cards that you are saving the planet.