A note of eco-dissent

Granville Online

With the excitement of the city's "green" vendors hitting a fever pitch—the big Ethical Progressive Intelligent Consumer (EPIC) show was this weekend—local interior designer Kelly Deck sounded an interesting note of dissent in her column in Friday's Vancouver Sun.

"Sustainability, blah blah blah... Okay, I've struggled with this topic. A colleague suggested to me that eco-friendly backyard tips would be a smart choice for a column, given that the EPIC Sustainable Living show is on this weekend at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre.

There's just one problem: those tips don't exist. They're like eco-friendly European holidays, eco-friendly cars, or eco-friendly Christmas gifts – when consumption of resources and expense of energy goes into them, they're of dubious friendliness to the ecology."

Deck's point – that we can't consume our way out of our environmental straits – is a philosophical one. The best result, she says, is not to label everything eco-friendly; it's to "plan well, build for longevity, and make informed decisions about what you buy and where it came from."

Question: Were you excited by what you saw at the EPIC show?

More reading: The Sun's John Mackie at EPIC.

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Comments

Let's face it... there's an

By Anonymous, April 22, 2008 at 18:57

Let's face it... there's an increasing amount of green fatigue setting in.

What we’re seeing is a whole lot of what we call “knee-jerk green marketing” - and it’s a big mistake. Companies are jumping on the green bandwagon because they think that’s the only way to get on the sustainability wave. What’s dangerous is that it’s leading to a lack of authenticity because it’s often done indiscriminately and without rigor. When brands make vague, philosophical claims about their pro-environment values, but don’t support them with specific, observable actions, it diminishes the eco story for everyone and begins to spark a backlash. Consumers are seeing the same colors, fonts, language, and imagery (lots of Earth images, smiling babies, trees, and so on) used across multiple categories, from hotels to food to packaged goods to fashion, and it’s not ringing true. They’re hearing warm and fuzzy statements about how much a company cares—and occasionally, misleading claims about what steps they’re taking to be planet protectors—and their b.s detectors are on alert.

Let's be rigourous. Let's have some dialogue. Only then can we be sure of creating the type of product/ services and brand experiences that we all love to engage in.

More on the our 5,000 people research study into consumers & sustainability here -

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=30a9e5f9-...

I would consider myself an

By Anonymous, April 22, 2008 at 17:19

I would consider myself an active participant in the "green movement" however I was dissapointed by Epic this year. It seemed that the show was more of a marketplace for green(ish) goods and services than a forum for the discussion and advancement of green initiatives. I mean... seriously...how many organic coffee booths were there...
I found last years program to be much more interesting.

Unfortunately - I think those who aren't already on the bandwagon are going to be experiencing "green fatigue" because the message is becoming increasing cluttered - as well as increasingly just a marketing ploy.

If you're so tired of "green

By Anonymous, April 22, 2008 at 14:11

If you're so tired of "green this"and "eco that"... then why are you on the Granville website?
Hype is good... change is better! For my childrens sake - I'm grateful our society has finally caught on and responded so positively to restoring our PLANET!

I see her articles every

By Anonymous, April 21, 2008 at 16:19

I see her articles every other week in the sun. this one was pretty good, i thought. i'm so tired of all the hype around green this and eco that.

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