Go for the green: buying beer? sneakers? a car? the most eco-conscious companies aren't always the most obvious

It isn't easy being green. No fewer than 137 eco-labels appear on consumer products these days, reports Consumers Union, and that's not counting stickers such as "sweatshop-free." This explosion of claims comes from companies eager to meet the demand for healthful, environmentally friendly products--or at least to cash in on it. Figuring out which products really are green and which are mere hype can be overwhelming.

Fortunately, there's help. To find out more about the current state of green consumerism, VT' interviewed Joel Makower, who has spent the past 20 years helping consumers become savvier shoppers and getting corporations to become more responsible corporate citizens. The author of The Green Consumer and editor of The Green Business Letter--a monthly publication that offers information to companies working to integrate environmental thinking into their operations--Makower is the "guru of green business practices," according to the Associated Press.

If anybody knows how corporations have responded to this demand for environmentally responsible products, it's Makower. General Electric, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, Levi Strauss & Co., Nike and Procter & Gamble have all had the benefit of his counsel. Nov," it's your turn.

q: With more eco-friendly products on the market than ever before, why do consumers these days still find it difficult to make smart choices?

a: Choosing wisely is a challenge precisely because so many companies are competing for this booming market. A lot of them really want to make their products and their manufacturing processes more eco-friendly. They've gotten much more sophisticated about how to acquire raw materials and make and distribute their products.

But companies have also gotten much cleverer about their public images. Some of them will make a tiny alteration in a product and then build a whole advertising campaign around it, even though the change is basically meaningless. On the other hand, a lot of companies that you would never think of as environmentally conscious are really making a difference.

q: For example?

a: Anheuser-Busch figured out a way to make the lids on its beer cans a little smaller. It saves tons of aluminum per year, but you're not likely to see an eco-friendly label on a can of Bud, so this has gone largely unnoticed. That's true of a lot of significant things being done for the environment--because they involve the use of raw materials or a specific process, they don't end up as an attribute of the product itself.

What makes all of this even more confusing for the consumer is that the experts themselves often don't agree about what's green and what's not.

q: Don't agree in what sense?

a: Whether it's better to use paper or plastic, for example--or whether a reusable travel mug that gets lost or tossed every year is preferable to a daily coffee-shop paper cup. Getting a handle on what is or isn't environmentally beneficial can be challenging because few companies understand the environmental consequences of their own operations. Those who do study the question often learn surprising things.

For example, Seventh Generation, a leader in green products, did some research and found that 96 percent of its liquid laundry detergent's contribution to global warming came not in its manufacture or shipment but in its use: Heating the water in which the detergent works best counted for nearly all of its greenhouse gas emissions. So Seventh Generation is developing a cold water liquid laundry detergent.

Coca-Cola conducted a similar study. You might think that the most wasteful energy thing Coca-Cola does is truck all those bottles around the planet--but it turned out to be the refrigeration units in its vending machines and restaurant fountains. That's because they run 24 hours a day. Coke, I understand, is working on a solution involving different technologies. The more you learn about these issues, the more complicated they become.

q: How so?

a: Things aren't always what they seem. It seems logical that the best companies are small businesses whose owners believe passionately in environmentalism and are determined to do things right. But it turns out that a huge, profit-driven corporation--because its environmental footprint is so much bigger--can have a more beneficial impact than the combined efforts of ten small eco-conscious companies. Also, good intentions are important, but they don't always pay off.

q: For instance?

a: Remember biodegradable trash bags? They sounded great, but to break down, they needed sunlight and oxygen, which are nonexistent once a bag is buried in a landfill. Styrofoam egg cartons are technically recyclable, but almost no facilities exist in the United States to recycle them. Pampers diapers supposedly could be composted, but that was based on a limited pilot program. Yet well-intentioned parents believed they were doing a good thing buying them.

On the other hand, companies such as Anheuser-Busch, which many people wouldn't expect to be at all green, actually are environmental leaders in their industries, even if these companies get other things wrong. For example, Nike is by far the most environmentally progressive footwear company in the world, but because the company has a lot of problems in the human-rights area, it goes unnoticed. And McDonald's is way ahead of Burger King and Wendy's in recycling, but because of its contributions to obesity and globalization, McDonald's will never be seen as a green leader.

It's important to realize that all this stuff is relative, that some automakers--such as Toyota--are better than others, just as some sneaker makers are better than others. But a lot of progress is going on behind the scenes.

q: What innovations do you find most exciting?

a: Fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly hybrid cars are catching on in a serious, exciting way. Clean energy--from wind, sun, water, plants and other organic matter but not from nonrenewal fossil fuels--is tremendously promising. We've heard about clean energy for years, but people are only now beginning to understand that it can work for them. Visit the website of a nonprofit organization called SmartPower (smartpower.org), and you'll be directed to companies offering solar, wind, hydro and biomass energy (made from plants and other organic matter). Right now, SmartPower is working with companies in many states east of the Mississippi.

Large energy companies--Sharp, BP, Siemens and others--are also working on solar, biomass and wind power. So a lot is happening, but it's a mistake to look for one technological breakthrough--one "killer ap" that will change everything. Most progress will be incremental and quiet. It will go on in the sourcing of raw materials and in the manufacturing processes and may never be apparent in the product itself. So consumers still need to make changes in their own habits.

q: But aren't consumers much more conscientious in their choices than they were 20 or 30 years ago?

a: They're not as sophisticated as you'd think, or as they think. I know self-described environmentalists who'll burn up a lot of gas driving miles to buy a recycled product because they are worried about overflowing landfills. In fact, landfills have a greater capacity than they did 10 years ago because landfill operators are more sophisticated about compacting.

The problem with landfills is the energy and resources used to make the stuff that goes into them. Over 95 percent of the things we buy--disposable razors, single-use water bottles-have a useful life of less than six weeks, and sometimes less than a day. Almost every environmental problem we face is a result of our own wastefulness. We pay a high price for being a consumer society, and not just at the checkout counter. The promise of green consumerism is that we won't have to do without things we want or need. But that means demanding that manufacturers find better ways to make these things and rewarding the companies that do by buying their products.

q: Who are they?

a: It's getting easier to spot them. There are new raring services just coming online--such as Alonovo (see box)--for which I have great hopes. These can be tremendously helpful to consumers who want to buy green products from eco-conscious companies. Patronizing these businesses is only the beginning, however.

q: What's next?

a: You need to tell corporations when you like what they're doing--and when you don't. You'd be amazed at how little it can take to make a company react. They know that for every person who writes to them, there are probably 100 others who agree, so companies are highly sensitive to feedback. Because American consumers complained, McDonald's abolished the polystyrene clamshell containers it used for its sandwiches in the United Stares. Toyota has pledged to offer hybrids of all of its models by 2010-2012 because people like them. Over and over, I've seen companies go from worst to first in direct response to consumer criticism. Home Depot, Nike, Citigroup--they all changed under pressure from consumers. Home Depot now buys more Forest Stewardship Council-certified (FSC) wood--from forests managed in an environmentally responsible way--than any company in the world. Citigroup now buys recycled paper: 28 tons of it (the equivalent of almost 700 trees) were used to produce its Corporate Citizenship Report in 2004.

q: Can we really do much in our own homes?

a: Sure. I live in the house where I grew up. We've made a series of eco-friendly renovations, using wood that is harvested in a sustainable way, paints that don't emit harmful chemicals, energy-efficient appliances and windows. We also asked that the contractors recycle all of the waste from the work they did. Because we live in California, which is a pretty eco-conscious state, contractors get asked to do that quite a lot. But you have to ask. That's what creates a demand for the service.

Being a green consumer isn't just passively selecting the right item at your supermarket. It involves complaining when complaining is warranted, demanding new products and services when they don't exist and buying them when they appear. It means taking action.

green-rated product

Alonovo.com--from the Latin alo novo for "nurturing change"--is an online eco-shopping service that's associated with Amazon.com. Find a product on Alonovo, and in addition to the description, reviews and price, you'll also see a five-dot rating for the company that produced it. Better still, Alonovo allows you to influence the ratings that products and companies receive by weighting the values most important to you--Healthy Environment, Business Ethics and so forth. Best of all, you can buy products through Alonovo at Amazon prices--but 20 percent of revenues are sent to a nonprofit that you specify. Amazon processes the transaction and ships the goods.

Launched in August 2005, Alonovo (a for-profit company) is one of a number of new services designed to help consumers make smart choices. Similar in concept is Idealswork (idealswork.com), which allows you to put more emphasis on a company's animal-welfare policies, for example, than on its concern for workplace equity--or vice versa.

How good will Alonovo be? "if it catches on," says Joel Makower, "it could be one of the most powerful social change tools ever put into consumers' hands."

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