No, I'm Greener Than You Are . . .

On behalf of TRP, I recently attended a function sponsored by our Chicago retail-warehouse partner, The Delta Institute. The main speaker was green business guru Joel Makower, author of  the new book, Strategies for the Green Economy. He spoke on the emerging green economy, where nearly every business and product claims to be green, greener, or the greenest, and asked the question, “How green is green enough?” I was reminded of this story: A guy wanted to open a dry-cleaning store on a certain block in Chicago. There were already two other dry cleaners on the block, both claiming to be the best. The cleaners on one corner advertised itself as the best dry cleaner in the City of Chicago, The cleaners on the other corner claimed to be the best in the entire Midwest. So the new entrepreneur, situated between the two, advertised himself as “the best dry cleaner on the block.” 

A 2009 study, “The Seven Sins of Greenwashing,” by Canadian research firm TerraChoice reports these incredible findings: of some 2,219 North American retail products making environmental claims, over 98 percent committed one of seven “sins.” The sin of no proof, the sin of vagueness, the sin of fibbing, the sin of hidden tradeoff, the sin of worshiping false labels, the sin of irrelevance, or the sin of the lesser of two evils. 

The cavalry may be on the way to save the day -- for the poor confused consumer and for green business in general. It comes from my hometown of Northbrook, Illinois, which is also the home of Underwriters Laboratories. UL sets standards for safety worldwide. They have just launched a new subsidiary called UL Environmental, whose purpose is to work with manufacturers to test, validate and certify environmentally sustainable projects and help the public make sense of the “green” claims that are everywhere in the marketplace.

UL Environment initially plans to focus on building materials and consumer goods, in part by verifying environmental claims about energy, water use and recycled content. Eventually UL Environment might investigate entire company operations. If a company makes a green product, but pollutes a nearby river or the air, UL Environment could decide that the product failed to meet its standards. Devising standards and getting them to be widely accepted is a long and difficult procedure that requires value judgments. Which brings us back to Joel Makower who asks, “How green is green enough?”

We in the deconstruction business are always asking ourselves, “How can we get more reuseable building products out of the houses we deconstruct?” We do pretty well now, reusing or recycling 75 to 90 percent of most houses. But how good is good enough? And how green is green enough?

Ken Ortiz is TRP Chicago Regional Manager