Green Hype

We have heard a lot of news lately about large companies making strides to be a part of the green movement. Companies like Wal-Mart, British Petroleum, and UPS are making headlines left and right for their efforts to make their businesses more green. Many of these companies are developing and marketing new green products and going above and beyond to show their green side to consumers. Are these large companies genuinely concerned about the environment and the future of our earth, or are they simply leveraging green publicity to make more money?

A recent article in Telegraph suggests that some of these large companies may be missing the boat.... literally. The article explains that Ex. Beatle Paul McCartney was gifted a new Lexus LS600 from Lexus for his part in helping to promote the new hybird vehicle for the auto maker. At first glance, giving away a high efficiency vehicle seems like a very green thing to do, however, Lexus made one big mistake. They decided to send their gift express, and flew the car from Japan to Britain on a Korean Air Flight, creating a carbon footprint almost 100 times larger than if they had shipped the car by sea. While the company is obviously creating and marketing products that promote sustainability to consumers, it is obvious that they are not taking simple steps to integrate sustainability in their own business operations. Does this seem hypocritical to anyone else?

There is a lesson here to be learned. Simply because a company sells green products, does not mean that they are doing their best to be green as a business. Although many big businesses are making an effort to look green, their number one concern is still to make profits. Don't believe the green hype. It seems we still have a long way to go before big business will truly have the earth's best interest at heart.