Was "Green" the Most Overused Word of 2008?
by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York 
on 01. 3.09
Image courtesy of Good
Green has gone mainstream—there's no doubt about that now. Celebrities touting their "green" lifestyles, corporations announcing "green" initiative after "green" initiative, and politicians publicly calling for "green" legislation and policies all relentlessly graced the airwaves and internet pages throughout 2008. But was last year the year when eco-verbiage finally came to be much too much?
According to the renowned word watchers at Lake Superior State University and the thousands of people who nominate their picks of overused and misused words each year, the answer is yes.
Banish Green Words in 2009?
As previously reported, the words 'Green' and 'Carbon Footprint' topped the 34th annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. The likes of "green" and "going green" beat out even the hopelessly overused 2008 election cycle lingo like "maverick" and "Wall Street/Main Street."
Some of the reasons cited for choosing green-related terminology as the prime semantic offender of 2008? Seems people are getting sick of hearing the word "green" in just about any context, too. These people listed their reasoning when they offered their nominations:
Too Much Green Talk
"Companies are less 'green' than ever, advertising the fact they are 'green.' Is anyone buying this nonsense?" Mark Etchason, Denver, Colo."If something is good for the environment, just say so. As Kermit would say, 'It isn't easy being green.'" Kevin Sherlock, Hiawatha, Iowa.
"If I see one more corporation declare itself 'green,' I'm going to start burning tires in my backyard." Ed Hardiman, Bristow, Va.
"This spawned 'green solutions,' 'green technology,' and the horrible use of the word as a verb, as in, 'We really need to think about greening our office.'" Mike McDermott, Philadelphia, Penn.
"It is now considered fashionable for everyone, tree hugger or lumberjack alike, to pay money to questionable companies to 'offset' their own 'carbon footprint.' What a scam! Get rid of it immediately!" Ginger Hunt, London, England.
Mike of Chicago says that when he hears the phrase 'carbon footprint,' "I envision microscopic impressions on the surface of the earth where an atom of carbon forgot to wear its shoes."
Christy Loop of Woodbridge, Va., says that 'leaving a carbon footprint' has become the new 'politically incorrect.' "How can we not, in one way or another, affect our natural environment?"
Despite being among the prime perpetrators of the green phrase phenomenon, I can see the frustration surrounding its overuse—especially on the oft-dubious "green" corporation front. I'm not about to burn any tires like Ed there, but sometimes I feel like flinging some compost in, say, BP's direction.
As for the carbon footprint-hating folks, it seems like at least those cited are missing the point, big time—get rid of the term altogether because some guy in Chicago has hallucinations about shoe-wearing atoms? The other two quotes seem to point to a general misunderstanding of the use of the term carbon footprint: of course we can't help but affect our natural environment, but the term describes a way of examining exactly how our actions are doing this, and looking for ways to diminish that impact. It's not all or nothing, here.
So my question is this: is "green" really in the spotlight too much? Is it better to have an over-saturation with environmental talk than have it be generally ignored?
And finally, is it possible that most people are actually sick of something they just don't understand very well—and that "green" should indeed be banned to make way for more detailed and useful information?
Perhaps only 2009 will tell.
More on Green Words:
What Green Words Are Obama and McCain Really Saying?
Green Vocabulary Makes it Into Chambers Dictionary
greenliving Magazine- Spreading the Green Word
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
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who cares what word we use to describe the most important event of this new renovation of industrialism. Using the word "green" is something that is important to this new revolution because it helps spread the idea that being "green" is good. It is one thing for a company to "green wash" its consumers by declaring themselves a environmentally responsible company if they arent doing any good for the environment. Even though this might be terrible to say this "green washing" is another step in the right direction. Sure, the company may be lying (we should fix this) but essentially the point is getting across. We need to do something to raise environmental awareness, and it seems as though these companies that produce material items are a perfect venue for an ad campain that can affect millions of americans. Before this generation I have never seen such a switch to becoming "green". Whether lake superior university likes the word being used as a verb or not, it is not up to them to decide whether this word can be influential. All in all I believe that the word "green" being used as a verb to describe being environmentally cautious is a good thing because it creates an awareness and makes it simple for people to explain thier mission. If you are about to purchase something from a business or corporation because it is "green", first you should stop, do some research, and then see if the company has a legitimate plan to become an environmentally friendly business. If not create a mass media marketing attack declaring them a fake.
I did hear that "green" and "carbon footprint" were some of the most over-used words of 2008 on the radio, and was slightly agitated to hear this. Although being 'green' is now becoming trendy, it's an essential change in our society - and many people still have no idea how to recycle or what's bad for the environment.
I do think people may be getting sick of hearing about being 'green' - perhaps the green actions should be discussed over the slang word of 'green'. Hopefully, we can strive to make smaller changes in 2009 over just talking about being green. Great article - very thought provoking!
"If I see one more corporation declare itself 'green,' I'm going to start burning tires in my backyard." I am with this guy. This site must be the largest perpetrator.
I think there is probably more important things to be reporting on...I will not waste more time on this.
I think we notice the word more. It's like when you're expecting you notice everyone else is too! I don't think it's overused. Can you overuse something that points towards doing something good to help the environment? Sounds silly to me.
That's all well and good, but according to Google (okay, this isn't too scientific) we're not talking about "green" any more than before.
I've posted a quick analysis on my environmental policy blog - it'll be interesting to see how this pans out in 2009.
I totally disagree. Green has been a culture-neutral term around which people have clustered, since its neither Red nor Blue.
Because a few people write to a group of self-appointed "word watchers" and the media covers it during a traditionally slow news period doesn't necessarily make the overused tag for green or any of the other words and phrases a legitimate one.
Worries about greenwashing are legitimate and have been for quite a while.
Just this morning, my wife and I decided to stop using the word when some skimpy little actress was on a morning show going over her new year resolutions and "being more Green" in 2009 topped her list..
The most laughable green initiative by an industry was the water company that decided to make its bottles with 1/3 less plastic.
Just this morning, my wife and I decided to stop using the word when some skimpy little actress was on a morning show going over her new year resolutions and "being more Green" in 2009 topped her list..
The most laughable green initiative by an industry was the water company that decided to make its bottles with 1/3 less plastic.
I work in marketing & PR for the building products industry, and from my perspective the terms "green" and "sustainability" are definitely overused. Two reasons:
1. Cluttered mindspace/information overload. Given that most people are not ecological science experts, how do they differentiate between the importance of a story about "Carbon Neutral TV Mounts" and "CO2 Absorbing Concrete"? This is a general greenwashing (sorry) problem, but even with legit stories there's an overload developing. This will lead to either mental numbness/tuning the issue out, or just make it hard for people to take steps that have the most positive impact.
2. It's not the idea, it's the word. We don't have the expanded ecological vocabulary yet, so we're stuck talking about "green building" or "sustainability" ALL the time. That's like only being able to describe a skyscraper as "tall", or glass as "clear". After a while you just need to use a different word.
We work with our clients to develop their full green story; if I can avoid using those words at all, I do. I'd rather present the evidence, and if it's truly a green product that will become apparent on its own.
Oh. My.God.
there are morons on this planet who treat this as a trend? wtf??? a fad?? oh Green is like so overused..it's not cool anymore... lets call it something else. like "raisins" !!!!
buncha dopes... stop talking about what you're going to rename it as to appear up to date in lingos and fads and what the bloody f**k the Queen has to do with this, and start talking about what you're going to do to actually GO GREEN!! there I used it!! and I'm probably greener than half of you green in the face losers.
Yes green is an overused word even though I agree with enviormentalism and know how good it is to be are of cause and effect of ones actions.
But the green label seems used carelessly espcially with clean energy being said about gasoline.
Now electric and cooking oil would make more sense to be enviormentally better not perfect but better.
I didn't think enviormentalism and consumerism madness went together because that contrubutes to the problem of excess.
There are more choices than there were with cleaning chemicals that's one good part although some can be made at home.
I just wish the label green was not just hype and selling something.
Saving the earth I thought required not an expensive lifestyle and that seems to lose sight sometimes of what helping the earth is about.
Just wise choices and being aware and acting on it.
I have nothing against enviormnentalism but the overuse of the word green and not proveing it or not being clear what's enviorment friendly.
Seems like a waste of time of companys saying the green word for the heck of it.
Burning tires if a company says green one more time.I
like that, not that I'd literally do that but I feel his fusteration and anger.