The Earth Pope

Double-sided Deception

The wave of "green" businesses seems to be growing to unprecedented levels but I'm wondering just what it means to be "green".  The question came to mind recently when I made my purchase of a printer.  I did the necessary research on the debate between ink jet and laser jet, making the choice to go with a laser jet model.  This decision had more to do with cost and very little to do with the recyclability of the cartridges or the drums.  In fact, there was no information that I saw using any environmental criteria for the decision making process.

Once a company was selected I then had the job of figuring out what model I wanted.  I quickly noticed that if I wanted a printer that offered double-sided copies I had to pay more money.  If I wanted to manually feed the paper in to make double-sided copies I could save about $100 over the automatic feed printer.  So, to have a printer that automatically makes double-sided copies would cost me about $200 more.

Now, in looking at this company's website  they showcase several good things they are doing to protect the environment.  They even have a link to another page so that you can see all of the additional things they are doing.  While all of this is really worthwhile I have a few questions as a consumer of their products. 

First, why isn't the packaging returnable?  This same company sells this same product in Europe where they provide take-back packaging for all of their products.  Is it because there is a law in Europe that requires all companies making electronic products to provide take-back packaging?   It seems that if they can do it over in Europe they could also implement it over here in this country.

Second, why is it that we have to pay extra for sustainable features such as double-sided copying?  It would seem that if a company wants to be seen as "green" they would make their printers with this as a basic feature.  Even with the expenditure of additional funds to get the double-sided feature I still need to go into the "properties" function of the printer set-up and select "double-sided" to enable the feature.  I believe that it should be the other way around.  Printers should default to double-sided and if I want to be unsustainable I should have to figure out how to navigate the property functions to disable the double-sided printing.

I have a feeling that much of this is because this company also sells paper.  If the shareholders expect big returns on their stock and paper sales help generate these returns then the company is not going to make a copier that uses less paper, even if the big population of stakeholders will benefit.

So, when a company claims it believes it is a "green" business we consumers need to figure out just what shade of green they are referring to--environmentally green or money green.

Commodity Sin

In my previous post Valuing the Earth I pointed out that we needed to begin valuing the Earth and her various inhabitants as being worth more then private property.  But I hadn't taken all of the possible iterations of this thinking into account on my journey to edge of Western insanity.

I recently discovered that the global corporations have come to the realization that, (sit down for this one), they need to pay closer attention to the natural systems they rely on to operate their businesses.  The report, Environmental Markets: Opportunities and Risks for Business, asks the important question--How much are healthy, well-functioning environmental systems worth to your company's bottom line?  This question is based on the fact that global corporations, and corporations in general, view the environment through the lens of "ecosystem services" that can be provided to them in order to increase profits.

This requirement that corporations view everything as either an asset or risk to making money creates a "black and white" market-based viewpoint where species of value become resources to manage and others with no defined value to business are seen as expendable.  People are thrown into this with the categorization of "human resources."

What about spiritual value?  What about the value of mental health that comes from interacting with nature?  What about the value of inspiration that comes from being in a natural setting?  Corporations can not and will not account for these and other true values on the bottom line of life.  There is much more to the "ecosystem services" than the assistance they provide companies to make increased profits.

How long before we see commodity trading in clean water futures?  Will an investment person get front page status on Fortune magazine because he saw the coming shortage in clean air?  Will the National Park Service expand bioprospecting to include organisms in addition to microorganisms?

Until we confront this shallow and calloused view of the earth and all of her beings as "services and resources" every living and non-living item on the earth will be just commodities that companies can exploit. 

Clean Water Sin

What's a wetland worth?  That seems to be the critical question on the minds of the Supremes yesterday.  They issued a ruling that has further muddied the waters of commerce but the essence of it is that wetlands are just another part of the natural system that man has a right to own and develop into shopping malls if he so desires.  The right to make money is the supreme right of the land, healthy ecosystems be damned!

As these would-be developers whine it out in the courts they are really missing the big picture and doing a disservice to the true entrepreneurs of the planet.  There are ways to generate money and protect wetlands while benefiting all life on the planet.  Let me give you two examples.

First, the California town of Arcata turned an expensive wastewater problem into a revenue generating attraction by using wetlands to help treat and cleanse the City’s wastewater.  Since the installation of the wetlands birds have flocked to the area and tourism has increased in this small community.

Secondly, as wetlands disappear they become even more valuable.  In fact, maintaining existing wetlands is so valuable that there is a financial market set-up to track the value of mitigation credits.  It has become the hallmark of a smart landowner to protect their valuable natural systems on their land and place them into a conservation or agriculture easement.  This maintains the ecosystem value and generates revenue for the landowner. 

Our death economy must be laid to rest to allow the restorative economy to prosper and thrive.  The very last thing we need is the Supremes giving CPR to the corpse of capitalism in the hope of making rich people even richer.