Little Green Lies
December 19, 2007 by amathew , John Morelli , amathew , Brian Butler | Filed under: Literature Review,The EM as an Environmental Sales person/Educator
Elgin, Ben. “Little Green Lies”. Business Week. 29 Oct 2007.Overall, this article deals with a concern about companies that engage in falsely advertising that they are “going green”. With respect to the question of whether we are (or should be) environmental educators versus salespersons, Mr. Auden Schendler comes up short when trying to justify environmental enhancements solely on the basis of direct financial return for some of his early projects. Schendler took a job at Aspen Skiing Co., a company that appears to be earnestly concerned about nature. One of his first targets was the Little Nell Hotel, which was a luxurious lodge at the base of Aspen Mountain with high-energy consumption. He proposed putting fluorescent light bulbs in all the guest rooms. He claimed the new bulbs would last 10 times as long and use 75% less power, and pay for themselves in two years. Senior management declined, thinking it would degrade the luxury of the hotel. Other initiatives were turned down based upon the same thinking.
From this article, one can gather the importance of education to get across the point of environmental programs and ultimately secure funding for them. It is apparent that the direct bottom-line approach may not be enough to sell environmentalism. There needs to be a change in values, which can be achieved by educating management. In this particular case, management believed that the compact fluorescents would not be perceived as “classy” enough. This is an interesting observation because it is not clear whether their high-end customers would have the same perceptions in this regard. One might ask whether such a belief was valid. If so, then management (with the help of the environmental management) might want to consider steps to educate their clientele. If not, then the environmental manager needs to educate management.