I must say I loved the comments from Mark McElroy on Joel's latest post covering NBC Universal's Green Week".
Comments on "NBC GreenWashing":
Hi Joel:
This will, indeed, be interesting to follow. So many questions to answer. Like how can a company that utterly relies on unsustainble consumerism, via advertising revenues, possibly undertake a sustainable course? Will they forswear all advertising that encourages consumers to consume unsustainably, or producers to produce unsustainably?And what about their social footprint? If NBC cares so deeply about their social impacts, why are they restricting their efforts to only environmental (aka, "green") issues? Has anyone explained the meaning of sustainability to them -- as in that there are multiple non-financial bottom lines, not just environmental ones?And last, exactly what approach will GreenOrder be taking to perform that comprehensive "environmental footprint" (oops, there's that missing social dimension again)? How do we know that what GreenOrder will be doing will have anything to do with actually assessing the sustainability of NBC, and not just evaluating its recycling or energy usage habits? Is there real rigor going on here, or is it just the usual attempts by a company to bask in the halo effect of green superficialism?Indeed, is there any generally accepted definition of "green" out there, or do we all get to define it in anyway we like? So far every definition or usage of the term "green" that I've ever seen arguably has nothing to do with sustainability, and instead actually undermines it as if it does. So which part of that, and the prospect of another big company like NBC adding fuel to it, are we supposed to feel good about? Perhaps NBC could do us all a big favor this week and answer that question.Regards,
