GreenBuild: So Many Booths, So Much Greenwashing
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 11.20.08
GreenBuild is just huge, 800 booths, 30,000 people, there probably are more green vendors and green architects in this room than there are green clients in America. One doesn't even want to think about the carbon footprint of bringing everyone to town for this thing, but they just had to change the name of Architecture 2030 to 2035.
The start was inauspicious.
The very first booth at the bottom of the escalator was for Kimberley Clark, manufacturer of Kleenex and notorious for clear-cutting Canada's boreal forests. Greenpeace Canada claims that Kimberley-Clark continues:
"to rely on paper and pulp made from clearcut ancient forest including Canada’s Boreal forest. Kimberly-Clark clears these ancient forests, essential in fighting climate change and providing home to wildlife like caribou, wolves, eagles and bears,into products that are flushed down the toilet or thrown away."
Not only that, a woman standing near the booth talking on the phone started yelling at me, saying "you can't take photographs in here!"
and only backed off when she saw my press pass. Right- a show about design in a room full of architects with cameras around their necks and she says you can't take pictures. I wonder why.
Fortunately, the first was the worst; there were other more innocuous greenwashers, but there was also a lot of very interesting stuff that we will post about shortly.
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Survey: Do Trade Shows Make Sense Any More?
- The TH Interview: Janine Benyus—Biomimicry in Design (Part One)
- 9 "Green" Gadgets of Questionable Repute
- 10 Green Tips to Recover from Holiday Clutter
'Zero Emissions' Antarctic Station Researchers Move In, Part I
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Barcelona Forever, a Recycled Interior Design Installation by Mette Bak Andersen
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I agree with all of the above but don't give them space on Treehugger!
We are running a no profit, user-generated conference in London which is small and local, but we did not even get a reply from Treehugger when we tipped you about it.
Criticizing what is not good is super cool, especially with ruthless exhibition which treat attendees like monkeys, but please do support small initiatives!
Julius
I went to GreenBuild for work, and boy was I disappointed--total greenwash! Every which way you looked, it was the same old non-environmental companies you see at every other building show, but now with new "green" marketing tactics and lots of supposedly biodegradable swag.
The most telling and memorable moment for me was watching an Expo Center employee poor Hood brand cream into a pitcher labelled "local organic" at the free coffee station. Unreal!