Tod Brilliant lives up to his name with a comment on Non-Essential Consuming
Posted by Dominique on 08 Dec 2007 | Tagged as: Green, Thoughts
Amidst a thousand spam messages was this comment by a new reader of the Root blog. We found it compelling enough to reply to in a post. Whether you agree or not, please let us hear from you…and now, Tod in a response to our post on Burt’s Bees being bought by Clorox for close to 1 billion dollars.
“A sad day, I suppose. However, this reminds me of the fundamental question that must be asked of all ‘green’ products:
Are they necessary? That is, do we NEED lip balm or is it something we simply enjoy? If the latter, then there’s nothing truly sustainable about creating superfluous products.
Yes, this is the hard line, and I’m not advocating a relinquishment of all luxury products. Instead, I’m pointing out that the purchase of Burt’s, while troubling in that a ‘local hero’ has been removed from the scene, is really more smoke and mirrors than actual loss. Whether’s it’s Clorox or Bob and Nancy Granola, products are products and it’s our insatiable lust for them (no, my lips really do get dry - I hear the protests!) that has pushed us past the point of no return.
Ben and Jerry’s. Burt’s. Prius. –> all absolute non-essentials. What difference does it make that all three are owned by major polluters?
Oh, this is NOT a rhetorical question. What, exactly, is the difference?”
Root: What is the difference? I do use lip balm on a daily basis, many times a day…do I want a healthier choice? Yes. Will it be Burt’s now that Clorox owns them, not likely. Was it before? Yes, amoung other healthy choices. So for me, Clorox’s purchase does make a difference. But what about the deeper questions Tod is bringing up? The complicit nature of being first world human beings says to me, yes, this is not a rhetorical question. What is the difference? I believe it is more and more each individual’s responsibility to ask these questions as we belly up to the check out desk. And the first question to ask, is: Do I really need this? The second: Where is this coming from?
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Great article. This reminds me of the insane number of “healthy” energy drinks and flavored water companies springing up…so many people use the “green” and “heart-healthy” tags to sell products that it can be extremely time-consuming to figure out who is really who they say they are just so you can feel good about which “good” company/product you vote for with your dollars.
Great blog!
If the economics don’t work, recycling efforts won’t either.
As our little contribution to make this economics of recycling more appealing, http://LivePaths.com blogs about people and companies that make money selling recycled or reused items, provide green services or help us reduce our dependency on non renewable resources.
Does anybody know about this site ( http://www.earthlab.com ) ? I have seen other environmental sites with carbon calculators like yahoo and tree huggers, but I am wondering what the deal with earthlab.com is, is it credible? I saw they also published a list last month of the top ten greenest cities ( http://www.efficientenergy.org/Top-Ten-Green-Cities-in-the-United-States ). Does anyone know if this site is better than say WWF site? Fill me in
I took their carbon foot print test and it was pretty interesting, but they said that I put out 4.5 tons of carbon while another test gave me like 15 tons? I think I trust earthlab.com’s test a little more (because my score is lower). Does anyone know about any other tests?
hi andy,
the climate protection campaign http://www.climateprotectioncampaign.org/index.php
recommends, safe climate as a carbon footprint calculator.
http://www.safeclimate.net/calculator/
what i know of these calculators is that they are only a starting point. i interviewed ann hancock of the climate protection campaign, and she addressed my question about the calculator. check our podcast with her.
http://www.rootconcepts.com/2006/11/06/rootcast-2_energy/
Great post (even though I just found it). I agree with your ideas, especially: “there’s nothing truly sustainable about creating superfluous products”.
That’s the big question: does buying a surplus of green products really make for a better life and carry less of a repercussion?
hi matt,
as first world consumers, we have an obligation to observe the privilege of our habits of consumption. the beauty, is, we have choices. The challenge is to curb the wants with what is truly needed, and come up with strategies to reduce, reuse and recycle…in that order. peace.