Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Corporate America & the Environmental Movement

Phil Mattera asks in his AlterNet article today: "Is big business buying out the environmental movement?" His answer indicates he believes they are trying and have evil ulterior motives. Mr. Mattera brings a healthy skepticism to the recent surge in corporate America's interest in all things green, and makes a good point about a similar surge of such interest in the early 90s and how it fizzled, in his interesting if lopsided piece.

I agree with him that much of what is coming out now in activity and marketing from many of our largest corporations regarding their sustainability is ingenuous at best and pure greenwashing at worst, but that misses the much larger, more hopeful picture. There is certainly a green rush of sorts happening "in them thar hills." I disagree with his apparent premise that businesses cannot remain or become more profitable by engaging in a variety of environmental and sustainability initiatives.

Human beings with families and children of their own run or help run even the largest corporations, not evil executive profit-at-all-costs automatons, and they are also a diverse bunch of people. Many of them have genuine interest in making the environmental initiatives in which their companies are engaging real and productive, and see how they can tie that to their bottom line.

While I can't take the time to turn this post into much more than an opinion piece, I can suggest Mr. Mattera take a closer look at some of corporate America's self-proclaimed environmental initiatives to see that there is actually some wheat and not all chaff.

Posted by Perry Goldschein
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