Last year around this time, I made a bet with a German colleague of mine that the U.S. was no closer to becoming a greener nation… unless it made financial sense to do so (i.e. the costs to be green are not worth the effort). He tended to agree, but thought the U.S. was a bit closer to taking the next step in being green. Fast forward to today and it appears the greening of America is well underway.
Last night I was going through the mail and ended up looking at a Sam’s Club mini circular focused on their green efforts. I was stunned to see all of the green activities that are going on at this single (albeit massive) retailer. With their clout, they have been able to require mfrs to lessen the paper content in packaging, increase the quantity of “compacted” goods (laundry detergents), push CFL’s to a wider audience… the list goes on and on (fair trade coffee, organic wines, etc.)
Is Sam’s Club doing this out of the goodness of their heart? I doubt it… but that’s OK. I attended a conference a few years ago whose theme was, “Doing Well, by Doing Good”. In essence companies will do good (conserve energy, better packaging, etc) if they can do well (make more money). Are the auto makers now all of a sudden becoming “tree huggers”? Not hardly. If they can sell more hybrids to make more money, they’ll do it.
In the end, it looks like neither one us lost the bet. We’ll just have to buy each other a beer the next time we meet. An organic one of course. And drink from a bottle so as not to use a glass mug which requires water, energy and detergents for cleaning. And a local one so as to conserve the gas used for transporting the drinks. Cheers!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Green
