Calling things "Green" when it's just about making more money

[Diesel_Dave]

This week at work, they rolled out a "Drink Green" program, where you can buy a company coffee mug and get it refilled at the cafeteria for a "discounted" rate of $1.69 a cup (It's $1.79 if you buy the paper cup). This new program was supposedly all about saving us money and being more green.

Previously, we could bring our own mugs from home and get a refill for $0.54.

I think this is something that really bugs people--when people come up with some new program to make more money and they try to pass it off as "being green." I think it's a big reason why some people are so "anti-green".

[jalmir]

agreed! had the same crap happen in a previous job!

[Weather Spotter]

do not drink coffee, save $$$$$$ ::

[Frank Lee]

They were only thinking of the slang for money = green.

[Diesel_Dave]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

They were only thinking of the slang for money = green.

Exactly! It would be one thing if it actually was more sustainable and happened to make them more money. But the part that bugs me is that it isn't even more green!

[ecomodded]

Every time a green program is started it cost the consumer money.
In my backwoods town a few years ago they started the recyle program with the garbage pick up, I am forced to pay $175 extra a year so our city can pretend to be green, its not, its a logging and pulp mill city, about as green as cancer.

[Diesel_Dave]

Originally Posted by ecomodded

... its a logging and pulp mill city, about as green as cancer.

Isn't that another example of the hypocrisy? Why is it that a logging community is considered the antipathy of all things green? I grew up in a community with lots of logging and most everybody understood "sustainability" long before it became a buzword--forest management, not overlogging, etc. was considered plain old common sense, not because it was "green" but because it would make you more money in the long run.

My grandfather did a lot of fur trapping. Again, my most standards extremely anti-green. However, he always took the long-term view, watching the animal populations, etc. He trapped most areas for nearly 50 years and when he died there were just as many animals as when he started. How is that not "green"?

Same thing goes for your paper mills--aren't they much better than people using tins of plastic? I never did understand why stores switched from paper to plastic in the name of being green and saving trees. Hello? Trees grow back--plastic bags don't.


...getting off soapbox.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Weather Spotter

do not drink coffee, save $$$$$$ ::

Do not drink coffee, save a buck or two a day (if you make it yourself instead of buying at coffee shop).

Do not drink coffee, watch work productivity collapse, get laid off...

Considering the difference between a salary and typical unemployment insurance payments, this seems like a false economy :-)

[UFO]

Originally Posted by Diesel_Dave

Same thing goes for your paper mills--aren't they much better than people using tins of plastic? I never did understand why stores switched from paper to plastic in the name of being green and saving trees. Hello? Trees grow back--plastic bags don't.


...getting off soapbox.

Well, I like plastic just because it traps carbon and keeps it out of the air....

Seriously though, paper mills use tons of horrible chemicals and the fluid discharges are toxic. Paper is good, but the mills need treatment.

[Fat Charlie]

Having a coffee maker at work is pretty cool, too. Our soda drinkers here buy at the grocery store and keep them in the fridge instead of paying $1.75 at the machine.