Are you feeling a bit greened out? Green fatigue is here, and it's spreading fast. Or at least that's what Alex Williams writes in The New York Times.
Green Noise
According to Williams' article, market research is showing that beleaguered consumers are getting tired of all things (not so) green: according to one study, consumers overall in 2007 were actually less likely to purchase green products than they were in 2006. Most disturbing is that the article ran in the fashion section, which begs the question: is green just another peaked trend?
Cited as examples are two things we've blogged and discussed in great detail right here at Re-nest: the dishwasher debate and those BPA-containing Nalgene bottles.
We'd like to take credit for bringing up these issues, but we see it as more important to acknowledge the complexity of going green than to present "easy" solutions that feel shallow in the long run.
How do you feel about this? Are you suffering from Green Fatigue? Sustainarhea? Recyclitis?
image via The New York Times
Comments (4)
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I'd say the article is way off base and that our family and many that I know are experiencing the opposite of green fatigue. The fact that being green is more mainstream makes it easier for our family to go a little more extreme and be seen as practical rather than nutty! For example, once we got in the habit of taking reusable bags for groceries, it was that much easier to take it a step further and use reusable bags at the pet store (for crickets), Target, the hard ware store, or any other store! Along those same lines, we now have the compunction to not buy products that are over packaged or made of plastic and so on -- in some cases it is easier in the long run to do without the short-term short cuts (that are almost always less green). I'd say our family is indeed experiencing green hyper-drive!
view Green Me's profile
I've been thinking about this quite a bit. Blogged it myself at Living Small, as a matter of fact. Really: unfortunate and as short-sighted as it may be, is green nothing more than a trend? I'd hate to see it that way, but I do have to wonder. Seems to be so chic these days. So Right Now.
Too cynical?
view allisonlindsay's profile
I've talked to some older folks who told me they used to bring their own bags with them to the store all the time. Composting was just "done", and they liked to conserve water (by taking baths together!) I think we just got caught up in bad habits and forgot the ways of our hippie-like, great grand parents. My own parents were into all of that while we were growing up and it just seems strange that more people see this as a trend. In fact, over the winter I had to rake my front yard, called my mom and asked her "What do you do with leaves in the city?" I didn't have a compost started at the time, and bagging them up seemed...wrong. (That's also when I started my compost pile!) I hope people realize these things have been done for a long time, it's just that now people are hyper aware because it's in their face all the time.
view crash's profile
I feel like it is easy for a journalists to write this story because "Green" is everywhere in the industry. But, is the consumer really feeling it? I actually work for a company that just finished a survey and less than 10% of people polled knew what green washing referred to.
This reminded me of a great quote I read, "you can't see the big picture if you're standing in the frame."
view lightgreen's profile