When I went to my 10 year high school reunion and an acquaintance discovered I was in the environmental field, she said "that's so cool! My company just went green last week!" I smiled politely, of course, but really I am more than a bit tired of the current amount of green wash going on. I'm all for environmental sustainability, I even think corporate "design for environment" type programs really neat and sometimes truly innovative. But how does a company "go green" on a certain day? It's not about switching to recycled paper and putting out recycling bins.... Also, every decision has some externality, some environmental consequence, and those consequences aren't always black or white. Take recycling, for example. There are some things that are so inefficient to recycle in terms of energy that it is actually better NOT to recycle a product. Environmental sustainability is truly complex, and a lifestyle, a philosophy, and a process.
Anyway, Austin and I recently installed our forested riparian buffer. The trees are just wee little plugs right now, inside the green tree tubes, but hopefully in not too long it'll look more impressive. Austin is still going to plant the native grasses, and has plans to restore a wetland, bucket by bucket, in the ditched area in the center of our floodplain.
