Reduce, Reuse, BUY GREEN, Recycle

The green consumer movement has gone mainstream with breath-taking speed the last year or so following such events as Hurricane Katrina, the release of An Inconvenient Truth, and significant coverage in both popular consumer magazines like Vanity Fair and Time, and business magazines like Fast Company and Business 2.0.

While many in the environmental movement have welcomed this trend with some caveats, others, mostly individual commentators, are criticizing it (see, for example, "Buying Into the Green Movement" in The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/fashion/01green.html?pagewanted=2, and my recent blog entry on an AlterNet article, www.srbmarketing.com/2007/06/corporate-america-environmental.htm). The main criticisms seem to be that we can't buy our way out of global warming or other environmental problems, and that the mainstream media and corporate America are seducing Americans into believing just that while continuing their gluttonous consumption patterns.

I continue to greatly appreciate the watchdog role both organizations and individuals play and believe the criticisms leveled at the growing green consumerism movement are healthy in reminding us of its limitations and drawbacks. I agree with them whole-heartedly that "buying green" will not, by itself, solve our environmental problems. The problems are too complex and pervasive for that alone.

I also believe that many of the critics are missing or conveniently omitting an important point in their arguments - Americans, and the rest of the world for that matter, need to buy and use things to survive. They need to shelter themselves (homes), sustain themselves (food, energy, healthcare), and protect themselves from the elements (clothing), among other things. And, while almost everything else may be deemed as luxuries by the hardcore, it's simply not realistic to believe consumption patterns will change significantly among citizens of wealthy Western nations until they're absolutely forced to change them. I'll leave it to the anthropologists to address that one, though.

Given this reality, I propose to add "buy green" to the environmentalists' 3 Rs of righteous living, so that the new set of green commandments reads "reduce, reuse, buy green, and recycle". Not as catchy, I admit, as the 3 Rs alone, but an important addition nonetheless. When we must buy things, shouldn't they be things that are made more sustainably, operate more sustainably, and/or are provided by organizations that operate in a more sustainable and socially-responsible manner?

Wouldn't this be at least be a part of the solution to our environmental problems when taken in the right context? Shouldn't we be encouraging people to buy the products they're going to buy anyway in a manner that reduces their environmental impact? I'm not saying we should influence people to consume more - just more consciously.