Admittedly, I'm not as good as I could be about "being green" or "saving the planet." Sure, I could drive less, bike more, and compost things, but I don't. The thing that bugs me, though is the current advertising obsession with the word Green. Somehow, it's become okay to label something as "green" just to get sales, rather than actually be beneficial to the environment.
Facilitiesnet has a very interesting article that demonstrates this. Basically, the green label is a subjective measure that relies solely on the data submitted by manufacturers saying that their product meets some random standard set by a government agency or other group. That's like giving control of your finances over to a bank robber and expecting the balance sheet to be true at the end of the month. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for doing our part to conserve energy and resources, but I think that there should be a better system for conducting these ratings. Considering how well the government runs things, I don't think that's the best idea. I'm envisioning more of a Consumer Reports standard kind of like the Good Housekeeping seal (Even that seems a little sketchy sometimes, though). I just don't like the idea of companies doing their own testing.
Granted, I just bought an Energy Star washer. I'd always heard that front loading washers were better on energy costs. I'm going to be keeping this sucker for a long time, and it seems like a good idea. I'll be excited to see how good this actually is, especially for cleaning. If the "green" thing gets people to at least think about the environment, we all win, but it won't be because of advertisers, that's for sure.
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