Going Green

In an attempt to track down a recent copy of Consumer Reports at a local library, the reference desk aide wondered what search term to plug into the computer. She was looking for an article on solar hot water heaters, as it wasn’t available free online.

“Would it be under alternative energy?” her co-worker wondered out loud. “Solar power? Water heater? Green?”

The silver-haired librarian wrinkled her nose at the last suggestion. “That’s kind of ambiguous,” she said.

The meaning of “green” is vague because it has been used loosely to describe almost any environmental topic or claim. It has been used by newspapers, magazines, marketers and public speakers everywhere to refer to solar power, “clean coal,” building codes, organic cotton pants, a brand of paper towels, recycling, eating leftovers and many other things.

VON KORFF “A lot of the green thing is hype,” said Santiago De Choch, manager of the GreenMarket at Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers. “Companies now want to brand themselves as green, and doing things in an environmentally sound way, and in a lot of cases, it’s a public relations ploy. Sometimes it’s kind of hard to figure out what’s real and what’s just a marketing tool.”

“Going green” may have something to do with reducing carbon emissions, but it’s also a multi-billion dollar industry. From nationwide retail operations such as Kmart and Target, to schools such as Florida Gulf Coast University and Edison State College, the word “green” has served many agendas.

Alliance for the Arts Green Market manager Mr. De Choch, eco-consultant Pauline Kathe in Fort Myers, civil engineer Heidi von Korff in Naples and furniture designer Marilyn Brazill in Punta Gorda all work in what might be considered “green” trades. Each has a view of what “green” means.

Clockwise from top, do these images say “green?”: Green Market manager Santiago De Choch tends to heirloom vegetables in Fort Myers; First Community Bank at the Forum is pursuing U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification; in Punta Gorda at Interiors by Decorating Den, a zebra-stripe chair made of renewed, reused and recycled material; a Jatropha plant being developed for biodiesel fuel in Southwest Florida. “Green is such a broad topic,” said Ms. von Korff, founder and principal of Sustainable Civil, a Naples-based consulting firm for builders. “It could be recycling or changing light bulb. ‘Green’ is a very easy term to use loosely.”

Ms. Brazill, owner of Interiors by Decorating Den in Punta Gorda, says “Green can be beautiful.” She applies the concepts of reuse, renew and recycle to high-end furniture.

“What I’m a big proponent of is sustainable furnishings,” she said. “We’re in such a throwaway society — whereas in Europe, they’ve been recycling for 50, 60 years. We’re spoiled brats in America. Here, most folks are buying throw-away furniture from big box stores. By the time they pay it off, it’s time to throw it away.”

The concepts of reuse, renew and recycle) “is not a joke,” she said. “This is not a fad. The reason why is, consumers are demanding it. The more consumers demand it, the more things will change.”

To Mr. De Choch, being “green” doesn’t mean buying expensive organic foods. Organic raspberries may impress your friends, he notes, but they aren’t very environmentally friendly if you get them out of season, flown in from Chile on a 747. It’s also out of reach for many families.

“If you go to the store with $50 and try to buy groceries for the family and make it all organic, you’re not going to get very far,” he said. “Being a local farmer is more important than being USDA organic. Local is the word, local is the concept you want to promote if you really care about (the environment).”

Many initiatives associated with “green” have real value. Jeff Good, project manager for Benchmark General Contractors, is pursuing the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification on First Community Bank at The Forum in Fort Myers.

A long list of measures have been taken, including parking spots with plug-ins for electric cars; floor and ceiling tiles, window blinds, wallpaper and furniture made from recycled materials; waterless urinals, low-flush toilets and hand dryers that only stay on for 11 seconds, rather than the average 33 seconds.

COURTESY PHOTOS “It really boils down to performance of the building and sustainability,” he said. “— maintenance on the building and how it functions.”

Mr. Good has become an expert in LEED requirements, but like the reference librarians, he’s unsure of the meaning of “green.”

“I think, historically, it’s always meant products or techniques that are less demanding on energy resources — for example, adhesives or cleaners that have less toxic elements in them,” he said. “But it’s really gotten to be kind of a broad-brush term for almost anything these days that is environmentally friendly or less hazardous. It’s getting to be almost ubiquitous. It’s kind of losing its meaning a little bit.”

Above and below: A 2-megawatt solar field at Florida Gulf Coast University is expected to be on before Christmas and generate almost one-fifth of the university’s electricity. Another photovoltaic solar field more than 12 times this size (not shown), operated by Florida Power & Light, was activated in November in DeSoto County. COURTESY KRAFT CONSTRUCTION Even so, the word has helped bring an environmental message, though perhaps a vague one, to a wide audience.

“I think these things compel (people) to at least consider the implications of everything we do — whether it’s the electricity we use or the number of miles we drive in our car — to really look at the benefit we get (from it),” he said.

Buying into green

A July New York Times article touched on the idea that Americans can buy their way into a healthier environment. “That vision of an eco-sensitive life as a series of choices about what to buy appeals to millions of consumers and arguably defines the current environmental movement as equal parts concern for the earth and for making a stylish statement,” wrote Alex Williams

of the New York Times.

Fort Myers eco-consultant Ms. Kathe advises homeowners or businesses about making energy-saving purchases such as light bulbs, cleaners, appliances and taking steps to conserve energy, such as taking shorter showers. In her view, the fewer products purchased, the better for the environment — whether they claim to be “green” or not.

“Look under one person’s counter, they have three products. Look under another, there’s 50 products. How many products do you need to keep your house clean?” Ms. Kathe said. “I mean, really.”

In some cases, consumers who paid extra for goods and services to help the environment didn’t get the type of “green” they expected.

Florida Power and Light was forced by the state’s Public Service Commission last year to discontinue a program called Sunshine Energy. According to reports, more than 38,000 of the company’s customers paid extra on their bills so that FPL would use clean energy sources such as solar. But a state audit found that 76 percent of the money went to pay for marketing and advertising.

That was before FPL opened the nation’s largest photovoltaic solar energy field in DeSoto County.

“We are completely focused on building a portfolio of renewable energy,” FPL spokesperson Sarah Marmion said.

This year, the Federal Trade Commission pursued civil action against Kmart Corp., Tender Corp. and Dyna- E International for making “false and unsubstantiated claims that their products were biodegradable.” That included Kmart’s American Fare brand of disposable paper plates, Tender Corp.’s Fresh Bath brand of moist wipes and Dyna-E’s Lightload brand of compressed dry towels.

On a popular Web site, WebEcoist, a link to Target’s online store advertises “green” products. A click on the “green movement” link takes one to the Target Web site, where items such as Green Eggs and Ham Speedy Diner Game, Green Bay Packers wristwatches, a toy garbage truck painted green and a copy of the movie “The Green Mile” can be found. These products have no environmental themes at all.

On the other hand, many such companies aggressively pursue programs aimed more at the public good than sales or publicity. For example, Charlotte County Public Schools partnered with Florida Power and Light to install solar laboratories in schools to teach students about renewable energy. L.A. Ainger Middle School is one of six schools in Florida to be chosen for the program.

Michael E. Riley, community relations officer for Charlotte County Public Schools, said the school system has saved $5.3 million in utility costs since it began a program to save energy about three years ago.

Other large-scale clean energy projects include a photovoltaic solar field at Florida Gulf Coast University and a grant to develop a biofuel curriculum at Edison State College’s Charlotte County campus. The Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, an economic development group, is recruiting vendors to retrofit homes and businesses in Southwest Florida with solar hot water heaters.

Protecting consumers

Claims made by advertisers — including terms such as “sustainable,” “natural,” “chemical free,” “tree free,” “composite” and others associated with environmental cleanliness — have been used to sell such things as food, plastics, clothes, cars, building materials and appliances.

Taking action on a wave of ad campaigns that claimed products as being “green,” the Federal Trade Commission began an early review of a “Green Guide” for product marketing.

“The commission began its review about a year earlier, just because of the rampant green claims that are out there,” said Janice Frankle, an attorney in FTC’s division of enforcement.

In June, the FTC released a report called “It’s too easy being green: defining fair green marketing principles.”

The panel that created the report also struggled to define the term “green.”

“Some panelists suggested that definite features of a ‘green’ product should include social responsibility, energy efficiency, and/or water conservation,” the report states. “Others indicated that ‘green’ encompasses an extensive list of possible environmental considerations.”

The FTC’s new “green” marketing guidelines haven’t been released yet.

“Stay tuned,” Ms. Frankle said.

But already, marketers are turning away from the term “green.”

The 2008 Australian Competition & Consumer Commission released guidelines that advise marketers to avoid using the word “green.”

“This statement is very vague, and conveys little information to the consumer — other than the message that your product is in some way less damaging to the environment than others,” the report states. “This term invites consumers to give a wide range of meanings to the claim, which risks misleading them.”

Investment = savings

The librarian found the Consumer Reports article on solar hot water heaters after looking through a stack of magazines. It read, “Unless you live in the Sun Belt … our tests show you could wait decades before some systems pay off at the current average electricity rate, even with federal and applicable state tax credits.”

Southwest Florida has abundant sun, so investment in solar power may be paid back more quickly.

Some business owners feel clean energy is the way of the future.

“I think the movement has finally grown legs,” said Randy Vann, who has owned RJ Vann Mechanical for 34 years, a plumbing and air-conditioning company in Fort Myers. He sold solar hot water and pool heaters in the 1980s, but gave it up because clean energy was a lesser concern in the 1990s. He recently added Solar Tech Energy Systems to his division, which sells solar water heaters, photovoltaic panels and other energysaving products.

An average price for a solar water heater is $4,500, but the state will refund $1,500 and the federal government will refund 30 percent of the pre-tax price. With monthly water bill savings of about 25 percent, the cost is paid back in a few years.

Mr. Vann acknowledges that photovoltaic panels, which convert sunlight to electricity, are out of the price range of most homeowners. The cost of a 5-kilowat system is between $7,000 and $9,000 after rebates and tax incentives. Such a system could produce $1,000 of energy savings a year. Mr. Vann is confident the price will come down in a few years, and wants to be ready when it does.

“I think it will be commonplace,” he said. “Even the least-expensive homes will have photovoltaic power. The efficiency in manufacturing and the desire to harness the sun’s energy — for me it’s a slam dunk. I want to be positioned to be a part of it.”

When gas prices rose to nearly $5 per gallon two years ago, the anxiety spurred renewed interest in alternative energy sources. This was compounded by former Vice President Al Gore’s award-winning global warming documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Later, President Barack Obama and others raised awareness by promoting “green” jobs and energy sources, such as wind and solar, touting them as measures that would not only control global warming, but help fix the ailing economy.

Social movement

Today’s green movement has roots in 19th century transcendentalist writers such as Henry David Thoreau, and has had many incarnations through the decades.

“Not since that famous 1970s TV commercial of a Native American crying at the sight of trash by the side of the road has there been a message or a campaign that speaks to cause and effect yet is easily understandable,” wrote William McDonough in “The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time.” If the term “green” isn’t really that understandable, at least it’s recognizable.

Naples engineer Ms. von Korff, who is in her mid-20s, set off with her mother last April on a six-month road trip to learn more about the history of environmentalism and energy-saving initiatives. Dubbing the trip “The 1st Sustainable Tour of North America,” they traveled to 19 states and 10 national parks, as well as Canada.

“I think we’re having the whole cycle again of the green movement,” Ms. von Korff said. “We had it once in the ’60s and ’70s. We have the baby boomers coming out, so they’re looking at the green movement, looking at something to rejuvenate their youthfulness. Then we have Generation X, I think that’s my generation — X or Y — and we want innovation.

“Biofuels is actually a really cool thing. Running your car on peanut oil is a really cool thing. These things are ‘green,’ but whatever, it’s cool. It’s very innovative. It’s fun. Not having to buy gas? That’s nice. That’s what the diesel engine was made for. It was actually made for peanut oil. Those are things the younger generation wants and people have to adapt to it. And if they’re not, they’re not keeping up with the times.”

For Ms. von Korff, who never quite pinned-down what “green” means, the trip was a “once-in-a-lifetime experience.” She test drove a car that ran on compressed air, saw homes in the Southwest made of tires, and visited the Ford Rouge Center near Detroit. Located on the Rouge River, the 600-acre site is an industrial complex the Web site describes as “the flagship of Ford’s vision of sustainable manufacturing for the future.”

The property “had wildflowers growing on it,” Ms. von Korff said. “It had fireflies. It had honeybees coming back to this industrial area. Now you have employees going outside, enjoying their environment. It’s definitely more than just sitting in a building doing your work. That’s the way as designers we should build. The pollutants are down (in the Rouge River). The fish are coming back to the river. There’s been a remarkable transformation of the area.”

Ms. von Korff declined to say what kind of car she took on the trip, only that she wished it ran on something other than plain old boring gasoline.

“Gas was definitely a major expense, I’ll tell you that,” she said. ¦