Sustainability Revealed

This youtube parody I highlighted above is a perfect example of green washing. Companies will do every little thing they can do to make themselves appear more environmentally conscious but when it comes right down to it the changing of a logo does very little to protect an oil spill.

Over the past five years while studying Interior Design at the Art Institute I have encountered one idea over and over again, this idea is sustainability. One key area of sustainability is proving and maintaining just how sustainable you are. This is often countered with green washing, which is where a company advertises that they are very environmentally conscious to millions with public advertising but then does very little in their actual business practices to back up this environmental consciousness. The U.S. Green Building Council is the non-profit organization that helps assure that buildings and companies are truly achieving sustainability. This is the organization that defines and upholds the LEED rating system which shows just how sustainable and “Green” a building or company really is. Unfortunately for a major television commercial or major print advertisement to appear in front of millions of people’s eyeballs it does not have to be LEED certified.

Cradle to cradle recycling is where you take a product and recycle it back to make the same material that you made before with the product. This provides the product with an endless life and instantly makes whatever product you are using much more sustainable. This process is excellently showcased in the nylon carpets of Shaw Carpets. They have a nylon factory in Georgia that is 100% sustainable and never needs to create new products because they only get their materials from previous carpets that are being recycled. This process creates a continuous cycle that eliminates the need for a landfill.