When thinking of "green" what thoughts come to mind? What does your brain associate with this rather ordinary color? Perhaps you imagine your house plant, Robert, a fat stack of cold-hard cash, your favorite sports team, or simply, "my favorite color!". For many of us, this is the color we've come to equate with the natural world, and it's become commonplace to denote something as "Green _____" if we view it as being better for our planet than an alternative option. But why, out of all the colors present in nature, was green chosen as the de facto representation of the environment? Sure, it adorns a great many plants and animals, but why not choose a color such as blue, which is undoubtedly much more abundant because of its relation to the sky or ocean? You never hear about "blue energy", or "blue jobs". As a blogging environmentalist, I personally am exhausted with hearing about "Green things", which is why I will avoid using the color as a descriptor of environmental concerns going forward.
The recent phenomenon of labeling all manner of things as "Green" or "eco-friendly", regardless of any truth to those characterizations has become known as "greenwashing". Often, manufacturers will make liberal use of the color Green not only when labeling their product, but in their packaging to appeal to the public's emerging "green sensibility". Nowadays, consumers can purchase a variety of such commodities, like green cat litter, or energy efficient banana bread makers, but in reality, not all of these products are environmentally friendly. For example, it's becoming more and more common for shoppers to bring their own "eco-conscious" cloth tote bags in place of using the plastic bags at the grocery store. There are good intentions behind this trend, but did you know that many of these bags could take as much 7,000x more energy to manufacture in comparison to plastic ones? Therefore, it is important to take not only the materials used to make something into consideration, but the method in which it was produced before buying something due to it being "green".
How have you tried to reduce your impact on the Earth? Have you been the victim of "greenwashed" products? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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