Can a non-organic vodka be called green? Low-pesticide jeans called sustainable? Uncertified wood called eco-friendly?
These’re the Qs I keep having to ask amidst the slew of semi-green press releases — and semi-green shwag — hitting my email inbox and real-life mailbox these days.
Let’s start with the vodka. The latest’s Reyka Vodka, described as “one of the most environmentally friendly vodkas to date” by Lindsay, the nice PR rep. Why? The distillery, located in an eco-friendly village called Borgarnes in Iceland, uses geothermal energy from local lava rocks.
Lava energy! Awesome! I got so psyched by Lindsay’s pitch that I speedily wrote back saying I’d love a sample of this new organic vodka.
Then Lindsay kindly and honestly wrote back to say that Reyka’s not organic, and asked if I’d still like a sample.
Damn. I shoulda read Lindsay’s email more carefully. But having been green LA girl for a while now, I increasingly find that all that’s called green is not what glitters green to me. I hear eco-friendly vodka, and I immediately assume organic — but others assume nothing of the sort.
Take the eco-cabinets by Maria Yee, for ex, which is now gonna be sold at Best Buy, among other mainstream stores. After reading PR rep Melanie’s email pitch, I clicked over to read some confusing info about a mysterious material called BambooTimbre and unspecific info about recycled and sustainable wood.
So I sent some Qs: WTF is BambooTimbre, and how’s the wood recycled and / or sustainable? (Okay — I asked in a nicer manner than that, sans the WTF)
And I got some answers from a new PR rep, Erin — and while I still don’t quite get what BambooTimbre is, I get that it’s made of bamboo, which is in general much more sustainable than wood. Fair ’nuff. About the wood — Turns out Maria no longer uses recycled wood, and that the “sustainable” wood she uses isn’t certified by FSC (the only trustworthy wood certification) or any other 3rd party certifier.
It’s basically a “trust Maria” deal. Which I’d be willing to do, except I don’t know Maria — I only have contact with the PR reps, who really can’t give me trustworthy info on the products’ eco-friendliness.
Which brings me to the jeans. Daniel of UJeans wrote me to say their goods’re made with “green coloring techniques,” packaged in recycled denim envelope, and made with “sustainable growth cotton” — which at this point, screamed to me “NOT ORGANIC cotton.”
So I checked out the website — Sure ’nuff, no claim to organic. Instead, the site said UJeans sourced its cotton via the Pakistan Sustainable Cotton Initiative — but provided no info as to what this initiative entailed. So I emailed UJeans. Organic? I asked. No, came the reply.
What’s a girl gotta do to enjoy a nice organic cocktail in her fave pair of organic jeans in front of an eco-media cabinet playing An Inconvenient Truth these days? :P
My point: Organic jeans aren’t exactly hard to find, now that even Levi’s gotten into the game. Organic vodka’s gotten pretty accessible too. And eco-furniture? If you’re planning to pay $1000 and up — as Maria Yee’s designs require you to do — you’ve got a whole wealth of certified sustainable furniture options courting your wallet.
But now I’ll enter a caveat. While all companies here responded to my Qs honestly, Daniel of UJeans’s responses sounded more real. He even added a link on his website about the Pakistan Sustainable Cotton Initiative, which evidently is run by the WWF to encourage “best water management practices and significant reduced applications of pesticides and fertilizers in cotton production without significantly affecting the yield.” The program’s been extended until 2009, Daniel says, with the hopes that some farmers’ll be enticed to go organic.
But the whole exercise leaves me feeling that it’s harder and harder for the average consumer to separate the real green from the greenish chaff. Even if they had the time to research these products like I do, it’s even tougher for them to get speedy, to-the-point answers to the Qs they may have.
Which, I s’pose, is the reason I run a green blog. I’ve already talked ’bout green vodka — I guess a post ’bout shopping for green jeans and green media centers are next :P
[images from Reyka Vodka, Best Buy, and UJeans; crossposted on BlogHer]
All very nice, these initiatives, but customers can get confused. Just a little bit of organic doesn’t go. For these manufacturers who use a word as green, or should I say misuse it, it is a chance to ride on the success of the real “green” products…
Comment by jacob — August 12, 2007 @ 3:02 am
What is Green? I think it means different things to different people. For me, “Green” products are Organic, biodegradable/environmentally-friendly & from proven-sustainable sources.
“Green Business” gives back to “Green” Charities, contributes to “Global Cooling” and provides socially-responsible services or aforementioned “Green” products.
For others it may just mean that the company/manufacturer is taking one or more steps to ensure cleaner products or business practices.
I believe that companies who tout their products as “Green” have a responsibility to back up those claims with proven action!
(Tammi steps down from soapbox)Thanks for this post. May it serve as an eye opener for many!!!
Comment by Tammi B. — August 12, 2007 @ 2:41 pm
I like how you interpret “sustainable growth cotton.” I read labels in much the same way.
I don’t take as hard a line as Tammi. I certainly don’t require that a company give financial support to green charities (Ford, Exxon, and BP would be among the greenest companies around if that were my most important criterion!).
For me, any “green” company that encourages a disposable/consumerist life-style can’t be considered green. So if Ikea decides to make their fall-apart furniture out of recycled material, it isn’t green. And if Diesel makes hot-for-this-season-only fashions out of organic cotton, it isn’t green.
I think the bottom line is that we, as consumers, need to demand the DETAILS about what makes a product green. Maria Yee et al. can earn our trust by giving us some hard facts about their products and processes, and we can decide for ourselves if that makes them green.
Comment by Rafi — August 12, 2007 @ 11:04 pm
Hmm, it is a tricky question. I feel that at least something is better than nothing, but the companies in question should get a positive but cautionary reaction form consumers, to encourage them to go that bit further. I understand Daniels jeans conundrum, having interviewed Katharine Hamnett at length about the subject. She uses organic cotton, and is a tireless crusader for its application, but points out herself that it takes time. For the three years or so that the farmer must farm ‘organically’ before the soil can be certified as organic, his yields drop significantly while he still has a family to feed, tools to buy, cottonseed to purchase, which is a WHOLE other story by the way.
Go to Hamnett’s website for more details. But, I appreciate you bringing this stuff up, and love getting your blog sent to me every day.I forward it to all my friends and have got some of them hooked.
Comment by bradley tuck — August 13, 2007 @ 7:56 am
I guess I would say that all of these products are “green-ish”. I’m not sure that I think being organic is the be all, end all of what makes something green. If the vodka was organic, but used a lot of fossil fuel energy for the rest of the processing is that *more* green? Certainly none of these products go as far as they could, though what they do is better than what non-green oriented products do. However, I certainly don’t like feeling lied to when trying to make good consumer decisions.
Comment by tracy — August 13, 2007 @ 3:21 pm
While it would be great if our fabrics were also organic, I don’t think, that to be geen, one must be organic. Levis only has one pair of organic jeans out of it’s more than 100 lines of jeans that it sells. That one pair of jeans is the most expensive in the general Levis portfolio! Does that make Levis a green company? That’s not for me to decide but for jean customers to answer.
I’m very proud to say that all UJeans are really green. It would do a world of good if all companies did something, smaller steps like Levis or larger steps like Living Wage Clothing.com, however this is what green means for UJeans:
*Fair Trade/Living Wages;
*Environmentally friendly colouring processes;
*Sustainable Growth Cotton;
*Reusable Packaging;
*Giving back to the greater community;
UJeans is not misusing the word “green”. Green is not an absolute definition, it does mean different things to different companies.
When UJeans decides to offer organic cotton as an option, our “Green” policy will be updated. In the mean time, I will continue to be upfront about our definition of green (http://www.ujeans.com/about-efs.html) and hope that other companies will follow and lead the way for others.
Keep up all of the great green work on your site!
Comment by Daniel — August 13, 2007 @ 7:18 pm
Please do not order anything from this company!I worked the POOL convention for Ujeans and was given a BAD CHECK!!!Daniel Feurer has yet to make good on the 3 bad checks he wrote for the 3 models including myself who made him lots of sales during the convention!I would strongly advise each one of you to not order nor ever work for this company!!! April Mason
Comment by april — October 11, 2007 @ 2:03 pm
April — I have no idea what happened between you and UJeans, but I don’t appreciate your posting two comments pretending to be two different people (I deleted the 2nd comment). That silly effort to make UJeans look like it has a bunch of enemies makes me think you’re not exactly a trustworthy or honest person. I hope you’ll refrain from commenting here in the future.
Comment by Siel — November 8, 2007 @ 11:20 pm