I guess that I was very impressed when I saw an ad for Fiji bottled water that proclaimed its Green benefits.  After I picked myself off the floor and got past the laughter, I tried to objectively look at what made them Green (www.fijigreen.com)  Well, let me list what I saw:

  1. They have the offices in prestigious Los Angeles office that are pursuing LEED certified ronovations. 
  2. Fiji water set up a trust fund to preserve the greenery of the Sovi basin in the Fiji islands
  3. A Fiji girl curbs her appetite (drinks water) and loses "Carbon Weight"

Hold it a second .... I had to get over another giggling spasm.

Okay, let's start with the reality factor.  These people are selling "bottle water" that is shipped from Fiji to America and transported to your local store where you pay an inordinate amount of money to buy the stuff. 

Think about sustainability for a moment.  A single use bottle of water that will end up in landfills regardless of token efforts to encourage recycling by the manufacturer.  Consider the ENERGY it takes to cart Fifigian water to your favorite store.  Consider the oil required to make those pretty bottles.  This is not a sustainable practice in anyone's book.

However, I guess I should go all misty-eyed about the fact that there is a trust fund being set up for the Sovi Basin in the Figi island.  I am surely going to be impressed to see the Fiji water Los Angeles building that is pursuing LEED certification.  And, we should not forget the remarkable story of a Fijian girl whose broken microwave helped her lose those nasty carbon pounds!  We are carbon-based beings, by the way.  Lose too mach carbon weight, and you will die. 

Like the magician who gets you to look at his left hand as he pulls a rabbit from a secret compartment with his right hand, I am supposed to be gullible enough to overlook one of the most egregious issues of our modern society ... single-use bottled water.  Buy a water filter for heaven sake, and save the resources of the world instead of one basin in Fiji.

Or consider an Internet hosting business that buys carbon offsets for each of their services.  And... viola, they are now a Green Internet Service.  Talk about amazing.  Nothing had to change.  Energy is consumed, computer parts are bought and thrown away, but I should be impressed with the fact that they are buying carbon offsets.  No, I am unamused at the blatant coverup of the facts. 

Carbon offsets are the publicity scam of the decade.  One company cuts back on the allowed pollution or energy that they can create which magically creates these artificial carbon credits.  Another company buys those credits to "offset" the energy they use or the pollution that they create.  This is a Net Zero Gain in reality but allows the public perception of a concerned Green company.  The sheer fact that they buy the carbon offsets is because they are using energy, making waste or pollution.

Years ago, Yohan Tetsel was a contemporary of Martin Luther in Germany who came to town selling "Indulgences" to raise money to build the build the world's largest dome at St. Peter's church in Rome.  The concept was to sell people forgiveness for the sins they plan to commit.  Martin Luther decried Tetsel's method of fleecing the flock, but I think Tetsel would be very impressed with carbon offsets.

Does this tokenism and superficial environmentalism make you wonder about the value of all this Green promotion?  It does for me, and I hope that I can add some common sense to this extended form of Greenwashing.  If you are going to claim to be Green, please don't ask me to look at your left hand as your right hand tricks the crowd.

Carbon offset, private trust funds that allow people to draw down excessive salaries, and nice buildings do should not change the truth regardless of how well polished these companies are.  Bottled water is an incredible waste of energy and resources no mater how convenient they are, and no pretty picture of the Sovi Basin should cancel the harsh reality of overburdened land fills.

Bottled Water