Sunday, October 14, 2007

Green is relevant.

From Greenormal
"Future dictionary definition: [Carbonarian:noun]
A person who has resolved to avoid all high carbon products, companies and activities. Analogous to vegetarian."

In the 1990's there was a forward looking gourmet vegetarian restaurant, on Vancouver's trendy Robson Street. 24 Carrot was all high end: linen, fine food, organic wines, lovely... Trouble was, Vancouver wasn't New York City. The clientèle, as I remember it, was pretty dour. Most didn't drink. Sales of juice and food were insufficient to keep the place afloat; one year after opening, they were closed.

A large proportion of self proclaimed Greens are 'problem' customers, who can't have this, won't have that, 'I-cant-afford-to-tip, -and-anyway-you-forgot-to-refill-my-water'-types. Some of them are Carbonarians, and certainly many are Absolutists, plagued by the realization that to best reduce your footprint, you should probably off yourself.

But there is a Green that is relevant to human life, and hence markets:

"When there is a need for a building, and the design and construction team remains loyal to the expression of that need, we see ecological and humane buildings rise from the earth. They provide homes that keep our families safe and warm. They contain schools for our children to learn, centers where we can heal, and places to work. We need to adopt a mindset not of being green by doing the least harm, but of being green by honoring our bond with the earth at every step of the... process. - Tristan Korthals Altes, BuildingGreen.com

2 comments:

Trish S. Davis said...

What a beautiful quote by Mr. Korthals Altes! He is right: Always there is a positive way to go about progress. If we placed more of our focus on our imaginative resources, along with a "can do" attitude — rather than holding onto some of our old ways with such a death grip — we might actually see some progress in our own lifetimes. And there's no better time. Enough of leaving it to future generations!

John Dumbrille said...

Cheers - and best wishes for the New Year.