Monthly Archives: January 2009
Sustainability hits the Super Bowl
Reading about GE’s intent to launch its Smart Grid campaign with a 30-second Super Bowl spot, I was struck at how far we’ve come since the sock puppet. It’s exhilarating to see how rapidly sustainability is entering the mainstream consciousness, whether on a personal level (the avalanche of how-to books helping people live greener lives) or on the national stage (President Obama’s order that the EPA reconsider California’s request to set tougher auto-emissions standards).
When the NFL does its best to mitigate the environmental impacts of the Super Bowl, when coveted ad space is purchased by companies pushing energy efficiency—it’s hard not to feel like we’re (finally!) on the right track.
I wasn’t particularly surprised to come across this article talking about the sharp decline in green marketing spend in the latter half of 2008. With brands—sustainable or not—jumping on the “green” bandwagon in late 2007 and early 2008, the fever-pitch of claims and counter-claims was bound to hit a wall.
Companies that blindly assumed consumers would purchase anything that proclaimed “green!” “natural!” “organic!” “earth-friendly!” are now gaining a first-hand education in the principle that Andrew Winston and Dan Esty introduced in their book, “Green to Gold”: that environmental features are the third or fourth characteristic that consumers pay attention to when making purchasing decisions.
Price, quality, value—these all take precedence, leaving “green” to serve a tie-breaking function, especially in today’s grim economic climate. I wonder if “regular” (not LOHAS) consumers are looking at green claims more closely when at the store shelf, and asking themselves whether what’s written… More
For those who missed the recent controversy over the carbon emissions of a Google search, here is a brief recap…
Act I: Breaking news
On January 11, 2009, the Sunday Times of London published a provocative story, in which it claims that “Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate the same amount of carbon dioxide (15 grams) as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea.” The paper attributes this finding to Physicist Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard University researcher, who will soon release a comprehensive study on the environmental impacts of computing. Needless to say, 7.5 grams of CO2 per search multiplied by the number of searches conducted globally would add up rather quickly!
Act II: Google’s response
Google—perhaps understandably—did not take kindly to the Times’ article. Urs Hölze, Google’s Senior Vice President of Operations, responded on the company’s blog later in the day. Contrary… More
