Going Green?
The marketing of “Green” thinking and technologies—I call it the Green R/evolution— continues to grow, in spite of the down economy and lower gas prices. Much of the media have embraced the new thinking, including a National Geographic cover story this month, for example. But that’s no real surprise, since NG has always been about protecting the natural environment.
The cover story this month is an interesting approach. A senior editor chose to experiment with his family and neighbors to try to reduce their household energy consumption—to 80% less than the national average. The story of their efforts interweaves with much info about national energy consumption patterns. Who knew that the energy lost in just TRANSMISSION to your home is twice what we actually USE in our homes?!
Another Green example appeared at the impulse buying area at the check out for Home Depot. A special issue of Fine Homebuilding features “Energy Smart Homes.” This goes into much more detail about the mechanics of how a home works as what I call a machine. You’ll find articles about how different furnaces work, energy efficient appliances, solar energy and more. Who knew that your refrigerator consumes twice as much energy as your stove and dishwasher combined?
These are just two examples of the growing support in the mass media for this movement. New websites, blogs, TV shows and more spring up all the time. Plus, with the new thinking of the new President and his staff, it would seem as though everybody is getting on board this train.
Politics
Yet, the public is not really embracing this movement as much as you might expect. Take a look at the data from a 2008 Pittsburgh consumer survey in the first blog on this site.
It seems as though this growing movement is partly hung up on the rocks of bipartisan politics. In some people’s minds it is associated with the Left, Liberalism and maybe even the “S” word—Socialism.
One reminder of this came after seeing the film Wall-E this summer with my Republican parents. Naively I thought the film was cute, clever and mildly thought provoking. And the kids in the theater seemed to love the characters.
On the other hand my wonderful father saw this differently—as part of the propaganda that Al Gore was spreading across the planet. I was dumbfounded! What I thought was clever and entertaining was not that at all in dad’s eye’s.
Of course this was in the middle of Presidential race and the beginning of the dumbed-down rhetoric of the McCain campaign in the final months—a strategy that clearly did not work. So maybe that had something to do with this. And my parents watch a lot of Fox News.
Economics
Then there’s the dire state of the US and world economies. Most people are fearful about their economic future and insecure about so many things that seemed bedrock only a little over a year ago, like banks. Perhaps that weakens their interest in things not about survival over the next year.
For example, interest in fuel efficient vehicles seemed to drop off dramatically in December when gas prices were falling. Consumers gobbled up great numbers of SUVs and large pickups. Of course some of the deals were outrageous in order to move inventory. Like buy one pickup truck and get another one free!
On the other hand, one of my clients, a remodeling contractor, is finding that the big, upscale jobs are harder to find. But some customers are choosing to spend smaller amounts to do home energy audits and make significant weatherization improvements. I did that in the last months of 2008 and saw my natural gas budget bill fall by $55 a month! I can attribute much of those savings going forward to the advice of this certified Green contractor, Regis McQuaide.
I’m hopeful that the new US energy policy will bring incentives to grow the fledgling renewable energy industries and encourage businesses and homeowners to reduce energy use. Secretary Chu’s knowledge, experience and commitment is an encouraging sign.
Of course significant job creation will be critical to gain Green momentum with the public. The most powerful thing going for any marketing effort is a demonstrable positive impact on people’s lives.
Re Wall-E: There is political correctness of the conservative kind, too, and like liberal PC it reflects underlying differences of culture and mindset. On the right, for instance, certain movies are not to be watched or shown to one’s children. Such as Bambi, or any movie in which the heroes are animals and the villains are humans. Other r-w PC sins I’ve committed, which various conservative friends have pointed out: driving a Volvo. Riding subsidized public transport. Watching NBA but not PGA. And carrying a library card: reading books for free at the taxpayers’ expense. Some of it is just amusing differences. But when it gets into things involving public policy — like climate change, hoax or real? — then it’s serious.
Admit it Randy, anything that doesn’t involve massive consumption of petrochemicals and abject obeisance to the internal combustion engine is a commie plot.
(I have Kool Aid swilling Republican relatives too. They warned me against buying that hybrid.)
it looks like this topic has stirred up some strong partisan sentiments.
Curiously, last night I was listening to a Public Radio International program on a Pittsburgh NPR station. The topic was about a growing “environmental ministry” in houses of worship, including what are referred to as the Christian Right. It described relatively new faith-based greening efforts and “green congregations.”
The keyword here seems to be “stewardship” of the planet. Something called “Interfaith Power and Light” sounded interesting, perhaps as a growing national model.
Last year I went down to West Virginia to work on a story on Mountaintop removal coal mining. Some key opponents to this heinous practice I met are “creation care” evangelicals, many who have been completely turned off by the co-opting of their religion by the Falwells, Robertsons and Dobsons of the world.
Are you by any chance from the Pittsburgh area… and know Diana Nelson Jones from the Post-Gazette? She’s originally from West Virginia and very concerned too about the mountaintop removal process.
Interesting about the “creation care” evangelicals. I hadn’t heard this terminology before.
BTW, do you by any chance know any congregations in the Pittsburgh area that are into this kind of stewardship effort? I wanted to connect a client with them.
hi randy, and thanks curmudgeon boy for being out there in defence of the mountains… i have heard of the evangelical movement TOWARD environmentalism. it isn’t a new idea but seems to be catching on among people who believe that god created the world and that all the life in it is his idea and that destruction is a direct insult to and assault on god. allelujia! i say. whatever it takes to get people to be refined stewards of this earth, so be it. diana
Christians for the Mountains
Thanks Curmudgeon Boy. BTW, for anyone who has been paying attention, CB is living in NYC and is an old friend who introduced me to the world of filmmaking years ago. As Pittsburghers sometimes say, he was “jagging my wires.” But in an interesting way.
In an offblog email he even shared with me a fascinating concept for a documentary about the mountain topping issue. Thanks CB for stirring things up. And congratulations on your recent screenplay award!
Dude, GREAT blog. This whole site that you have set up is top-notch. Well done. I’m really looking forward to reading all of your archives. Terrific job, keep it up!
Laban Paul
Thanks, Paul, for the encouragement! If you have any more thoughts let me know.
BTW, this site is about to undergo a major improvement in look and navigation. Found two great freelancers who are great to work with. Look again in maybe two weeks.