Greenwash Watch: Little Green Lies

Greenwash Watch: Little Green Lies

We are shocked, shocked to find that "companies continue to assess most green initiatives with the same return-on-investment analysis they would use with any other capital project." So is Rocky Mountain Institute grad and Aspen Ski Resort "corporate sustainability" advocate Auden Schendler. After eight years of work, he tells Business Week: "Who are we kidding?" he says, finally. Despite all his exertions, the resort's greenhouse-gas emissions continue to creep up year after year. More vacationers mean larger lodgings burning more power. Warmer winters require tons of additional artificial snow, another energy drain. "I've succeeded in doing a lot of sexy projects yet utterly failed in what I set out to do," Schendler says. "How do you really green your company? It's almost f------ impossible." Perhaps working at an Aspen ski resort was not the best career choice, with all those rich folk flying in on their Gulfstreams to stay in 10,000 square foot houses and get winched up the hills. Read this monumentally silly article at ::Business Week but also look at the ::very good slide show, with their take on who is going green and who is just a greenwashing poseur. UPDATE: Triple bottom line didn't think much of the article either.