Don’t you love it when huge food corporations don’t actually make their food healthy and sustainable but make token attention-getting green moves? A few of note:
>> Domino’s Pizza cleans streets with GreenGraffiti. Greenwashing — Literally! Basically, the pizza company’s using a high-pressure water sprayer to create its American Legends pizza ads in L.A., NYC, and Philadelphia — then sending out press releases touting its “environmentally-friendly and potentially controversial marketing campaign.”
>> Burger King’s installing electricity-producing speed bumps. Writes Lloyd Alter in Treehugger: “Where do I start? With the carbon footprint of drive-in restaurants, to the idling while waiting for the burger, to the carbon footprint of raising meat and making hamburgers? The installation of this at a burger joint is laughable. The energy it will generate is negligible, and It probably will take twenty years to recover the energy in it’s manufacture.”
>>McDonald’s is putting in an EV charging station at a restaurant. Now you can charge up your electric car greenly while eating a cheeseburger with a gigantic carbon footprint!
Now, for one fast food restaurant that’s doing it right:
>> Chipotle’s sponsoring free screenings of Food, Inc., an eco-docu that basically points out the huge problems — ranging from environmental concerns to immigration issues — posed by all the fast food companies named above. Here’s my review of Food, Inc. We’ve got 2 screenings in the L.A. area:
* Tues., July 14, 2009 at 7:30 pm: Laemmle Playhouse 7 Cinemas, 673 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena
* Thurs., July 16, 2009 at 7:30 pm: Laemmle Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood
Image via dominosbiz.com
Lloyd Alter of treehugger is right on the mark politically here… but should have a proofreader check his use of “it’s” vs. “its” (as in “recover the energy in it’s manufacture”)
Joe Linton’s last blog post..Of Nexus and Navigability: Part 5 – USACE: no ifs ands or boats!
Comment by Joe Linton — July 9, 2009 @ 4:59 pm
Interesting… isn’t Chipotle owned by McDonald’s? I could be wrong. I do love their burritos… that much I know.
With the Domino’s thing… I know that a local amusement park in San Diego was doing the same thing.. with saltwater! That can’t be great for the longevity of the concrete though.
Comment by Bill Byrne — July 10, 2009 @ 9:19 am
I leave typos here and there too, unfortunately. Would love to hire a copyeditor, but can’t….
I believe Chipotle used to be part owned by McDonald’s, but isn’t anymore.
Comment by Siel — July 10, 2009 @ 5:32 pm
I read about someone doing that same sidewalk advertising in LA someplace – I think it was a car dealership. On one hand I think it’s hilarious (they’re cleaning!) and an interesting way to display an advertisement and it’s better than spray painting. It’s also interesting because someone figured there were enough pedestrians in the area to make the effort worthwhile. On the other hand, it is obnoxious, I don’t know if any “greenness” in the method can make up for the things being advertised and I’d rather see art on the sidewalks using the same technique. Then again I make pictures out of the leaves and stuff that are already on the sidewalks and hope someone else sees the results and smiles.
M’s last blog post..Happy 4th of July!
Comment by M — July 10, 2009 @ 9:01 pm
M — It’s interesting b/c if a street artist did this, I’d think it was cool. But when huge franchises do it, it just seems like a corporate takeover of public space –
Comment by Siel — July 13, 2009 @ 5:46 pm