Stephanie Simon had an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal last week, about what it takes to steer consumers toward supposedly environmentally friendly habits. Turns out that peer pressure-generated guilt is a big motivator.
In Washington DC, for example, plastic bags are now a nickel apiece at the grocery store. It’s not the cost, though; it’s that you have to ask for them in front of your fellow shoppers that has driven their consumption down. (I’d ask for Styrofoam coolers lined with spotted owl down, but never mind.) Towels and sheets in your hotel room? Little signs that tell you “everybody’s doing it,” i.e. “75% of the guests in this room reuse,” are quite effective.
However, I frequently chuckle at the things we think, person to person, about “protecting the environment.” Now a few things are simple. There’s not much rational case to be made for littering, for example. Reusing hotel towels? Sure, why not? I generally use one for four or five days at home.
But the compact fluorescent bulb has been unintentionally hilarious in at least two ways—the effect of its much lower “waste” heat on fossil fuel consumption, as well as proper disposal. (How many folks throw those away “properly,” as opposed to out-of-sight-out-of-mind trashcanning them?)
If you pony up for a Chevrolet Volt, are you helping or hurting? It runs on coal, you know. (By the way, cars account for only about 9% of the country’s carbon dioxide output.)
On the way back from Nathan’s soccer game yesterday, I noticed a new subdivision going in. I went back and photographed the sign today:
Yeah, so, we’ve bulldozed hundreds of acres of old-growth forest on an already-congested suburban thoroughfare so we can build sprawling domiciles with “huge master retreats,” “spa inspired bathrooms,” home theaters, and built-in $7,000 refrigerators. But don’t worry, we’re also going to drop a C-note on those curly light bulbs, and we’ll use that fancy new spray foam insulation too. So, you know, it’s “green technology.”
Chuckle with me. But have you any doubt whether the campaign will be effective?
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As a Realtor I can tell you that most buyers don’t think twice about “green homes” unless it saves them money. Solar panels are very green (and effective here in AZ), but people buy them because it saves on utilities not because it’s the “right thing to do”. Same thing with extra insulation and specialty windows. They never mention what a great thing it is for the environment, it’s always the lower bills. Always. But I have no illusions that they tell anyone else that, I’m sure they tell their friends how green it is. Also, those stupid light bulbs are the bane of my existence. Mister C went through the house when we bought it and replaced every bulb with those things. They take forever to warm up. Which means that for them to be bright enough for me to see when I want to put on make up (or some other such girly thing) I usually turn the lights on and then go do something else. At which point Mister C will go behind me shutting off the lights that I “forgot” on. And then we’ll do it it again.
That’s exactly the kind of environmentalist I am. We have many CFLs, many NiMH batteries, and a commuter clown car purely for pocketbook reasons. Save the earth!
I expect this new development isn’t on a public transit line….
I just got home from a trip out to oregon for business. And not the good part of oregon either…I was on the eastern side of the rockies where it basicallly looks like the surface of the moon.
Anyway…I have never been so mad at the “green” influence in my life. Besides telling me to re-use my towels, everywhere you went had “automatic” water faucets and automatic power towel dispensers. Those things just make me so damn mad! I know how long I’d like to wash my hands and I have the good sense to know how much paper towel it takes to dry them.
Kemtee, no, but in the developer’s defense, that’s nearly impossible to do around here. We have only the sketchiest of bus lines, and I don’t think Madison is included at all.
Marianne, I always patiently churn off three of those automatically-dispensed paper towels. 🙂
I was an early adopter of the re-usable bags but only because they held more items then the plastic ones and I was getting tired of having to deal with the 2 million plastic bags that seemed to accumulate.
Lea, I like the reusable bags too. The problem is I never remember to bring them with me to the store. Even when I put them in the trunk of my car…